Instantaneous media-on-demand

ABSTRACT

Various techniques for providing instantaneous media services are disclosed. Some of the techniques provide an instantaneous media-on-demand system, process and method for the same. Such a system offers a dynamic library with a significant number of titles from which a user may select and offers play back a desired title fairly instantly. To facilitate instant playback, a file pertaining to a title is fragmented into a header and segments. The header is seeded in all boxes in service and none, one or more segments are distributed to the network of boxes. When the title is ordered, the header is instantly played back while the segments, if not locally available, are streamed in respectively from the boxes having the segments to enable continuous playback of the ordered title.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention is generally related to multimedia delivery overthe Internet. Particularly, the present invention is related totechniques, when properly combined, for providing instantaneousmedia-on-demand (MOD) including services, systems and methods for thesame. Further, the present invention is related to techniques forproviding a dynamic library of many titles from which a user can selectand instantly play back.

2. Description of the Related Art

Whether it is an elder telling a story by the fire or a family sittingin front of the television during dinner, humans have an innate need tohear stories and to be entertained. It is unbelievable how manytelevisions and/or radios each household has. In fact, it is estimatedthat every household has 2.3 televisions and that people watchtelevision an average of five (5) hours per day. These statistics andhuman propensities motivate cable providers, satellite providers, videorental companies, Blockbuster Inc., NetFlix.com, etc. to invest millionsof dollars to offer videos, television and movie broadcasts, premiummovie channels, pay-per-view, etc. to customers.

Traditionally, each television viewer was satisfied to have four (4) orfive (5) television channels offering a few shows and to go to thecinema for more exciting movie content. However, today's audiences havebecome more demanding, expecting so much more from television at home,including a large variety of more sophisticated dramas, comedies,adventures, horrors, etc. To satisfy this demand, the majority oftelevision viewers subscribe to cable or satellite services, the basicservice alone offering significantly more channels and premiumbroadcasts than regular television.

Still, customers remain unsatisfied. In response, cable and satelliteservices offer movie channel subscriptions. Each movie channel offers alimited number of relatively new releases of movie broadcasts atpre-selected times. A viewer can review movie lists and movie schedules,and plan to watch selected movies when they are offered. If the viewerturns on the television at the right time, the viewer can watch themovie from the beginning. Otherwise, the viewer may have to watch themovie starting from some other point. Alternatively, the viewer canrecord movies to watch at times more convenient to the viewer (whetherusing digital video recorders such as that offered by TiVo Inc. ortraditional VCRs). Since the number of movies offered by these moviechannels are limited, more disciplined viewers may record all desirablemovies currently being provided and have to wait until additional titlescome available. Since the number of movies offered on movie channels islimited and since the movies start at irregular times, movie channels donot effectively satisfy current customer demand.

Customer appeal of “video on demand” is well known. Generally, truevideo on demand can be characterized as instantaneous viewing of a movie(or other content) which may be selected from a list of preferably allmovies available. Ideally, a server or set of servers will store allmovies, will enable customers to select movies, and will stream themovies to the consumers while the customers view the movies withoutnetwork interruption. However, given the many shortcomings of today'stechnology and network-related infrastructure, true video on demand iscurrently unavailable to the general public. Communication capacity andspeed in satellite, cable and DSL networks are insufficient, unreliable,unpredictable and inconsistent. Because of the insufficient andinconsistent communication capacity and speed, if true video on demandwere available, viewers on a system of today would have to settle forunwanted pauses and other erratic behavior. True video on demand willlikely be unavailable to the general public for many years, availableonly after faster and significantly more reliable and predictablecommunication channels (e.g., fiber optics) are deployed and fastercomputing is developed.

In limited circumstances, true VOD is offered today using specialized,reliable networks capable of delivering and maintaining high capacityand speed. Cable “On Demand” is one such service. On Demand provides theability to instantly download movies for playback, but only if the useris connected to a high speed digital network and if the service providercan support VOD. This service is not available over traditionalbroadband connections.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there shows a video delivery system 100 that isused for delivering video services over a network. The video deliverysystem 100 includes a video server 102 that is sometimes referred to asa head-end. Through a data network 104, the video server 102 can providecontinuous, scheduled and video-on-demand (VOD) services to respectiveclient machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n (i.e., its subscribers).Hence, the system 100 is a typical client-server architecture with oneserver 102 serving a plurality of client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . .106-n. The server 102 is further coupled to a media storage device 112that may be configured to store various media files (e.g., movies ornews footage). The media storage device 112 must be on-line and muststore and supply titles scheduled or demanded for delivery to any of theclient machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n.

To ensure quality of service (QoS), the bandwidth requirement of thenetwork path (e.g., 108-1, 108-2, . . . 108-n) to each of the clientmachines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n has to be sufficient. However, as thenumber of the subscribers continues to increase, the demand on thebandwidth of the backbone network path 110 increases linearly, and theoverall cost of the system 100 increases considerably at the same time.If the server has a fixed bandwidth limit and system support capability,an increase in the number of subscribers beyond a certain threshold willresult in slower transfer of data to clients. In other words, thetransmission of the video data over the network 104 to the subscribersvia the client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n is no longerguaranteed. When the video data is not received in a client machine ontime, the display of the video data may fail or at least become jittery.

To alleviate such loading problem to the video server 102, a videodelivery system often employs multiple video servers, perhaps inmultiple locations. Each of the video servers, similar to the videoserver 102, is configured to support a limited number of subscribers.Whenever the number of subscribers goes beyond the capacity of a videoserver or the bandwidth thereof, an additional video server needs to bedeployed or additional bandwidth needs to be allocated. Subsequently,overall costs go up considerably when more subscribers sign up with thevideo delivery system 100.

As a simple solution to the video-on-demand limitations, cable andsatellite providers offer pay-per-view, namely, a limited number ofnewer releases starting on average every half hour for about the priceof a video rental. Even with pay-per-view, a customer has to select amovie from a limited set, and still has to wait until the broadcastbegins. Further, in cases where the set-top box does not support two-waycommunication with the service provider, the customer has toinconveniently telephone a service to order the selected movie.Pay-per-view is a feeble solution to true video on demand.

Several cable and Internet companies are considering other alternativesto true video on demand. One of the better alternative systems of todayenables a viewer to select, order, download and view a movie. However,because of slow download speeds and considerable movie size, the viewerhas to wait significant time, e.g., one (1) to two (2) hours, for themovie to download. Although in many ways better than pay-per-view, thisoption is still far from ideal. The solution makes customers wait a longtime before receiving the movie, fails to give consumers immediategratification, and fails to take advantage of impulsive nature of manypurchasers.

Satellite providers specifically will have difficulty providing truevideo on demand or current alternatives because satellite communicationoffers no return path, i.e., offers only one-way communication from thesatellite provider to the customer, and because satellite bandwidthwhich is sufficient for broadcast (i.e. point-to-multipoint) isinsufficient for point-to-point communication. At this time, customershave no way to peruse movie options, request a movie, etc. without sometwo-way mode of communication. Because of the limited capabilities ofsatellite networks, satellite providers are at a substantialdisadvantage to cable providers who can offer cable, internet broadband,voice over IP, and other network services.

Companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix, Inc. have createdbusiness models that attempt to give greater movie options to customers.However, Blockbuster requires customers to get off the sofa, getdressed, go to a hopefully local business establishment, select a movie(which is often unavailable), and return home before being able to startthe movie. Netflix allows a customer to order movies from extensivelists, but mails the requested movies using traditional post. Customershave to wait at least several days before a requested movie is received.These two models do not offer anything “on demand.”

There, thus, is a great need for an instantaneous VOD system that allowsusers to select a desired title among a sizable library and view theordered title instantaneously.

SUMMARY

This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects ofembodiments of the present invention and to briefly introduce somepreferred embodiments. Simplifications or omissions in this section aswell as the title and the abstract of this disclosure may be made toavoid obscuring the purpose of the section, the title and the abstract.Such simplifications or omissions are not intended to limit the scope ofthe present invention.

Broadly speaking, embodiments of the invention relate to techniques forproviding media services over data networks. The techniques describedherein are related to each other and each is believed independentlynovel in the art. The disclosed techniques may be performed alone or inany combination to provide a novel and unobvious system or a portion ofa system. It should be understood that the techniques in combinationyield an equally independently novel combination as well, even ifcombined in their broadest sense; i.e. with less than the specificmanner in which each of the techniques has been reduced to practice.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to various techniques forproviding media services over data networks. According to one aspect,some of the techniques, when properly combined, can provide aninstantaneous media-on-demand system, and process and method for thesame. Significantly different from the prior art systems in which mediaservices are rendered at a central server or servers, embodiments of thepresent invention utilize individual devices on a network to supply eachother with needed sources in pieces to render required services. As aresult, the loading pressure on a server is distributed into thenetwork.

According to another aspect of the invention, a system provides alibrary with a significant number of titles from which a user may selectand order a title whenever desired and play back the title fairlyinstantly by accessing a beginning portion of a file pertaining to thetitle. The beginning portion of data is locally cached while theremaining portion of the data is supplied by other designated devices.The library is updated dynamically with releases (e.g., new or populartitles).

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a filepertaining to a title is fragmented into a header and several tails orsegments. The header is a continuous portion of the file while thesegments are respective parts of the remaining portion of the file. Theheader is seeded substantially in all boxes, and none or at least one ofthe segments are distributed in each of the boxes in service. When atitle is ordered, the header is instantly played back while thesegments, if not locally available, are streamed in or continuouslyfetched respectively from other boxes that have the segments. Data fromthe segments being concurrently fetched is multiplexed together withdata from segments cached locally, if any, to recover the remainingportion of the file and continue playback of the title.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a large fileis fragmented intelligently and the segments are so distributed as tobest utilize the network bandwidth and maximize quality of service(QoS). The header size and the number of segments are computed ordetermined periodically in accordance with the required transmissionrate of the title, the minimum available network speeds, etc.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a library ineach of the boxes in service is updated synchronously or asynchronously.Any release to update the library is performed by propagating datachunks by a gossip protocol to all boxes in service. A proper releasepackage is then recovered in each box from the received data chunk toupdate the library. In a case in which a service provider is providedwith a high bandwidth broadcasting or multicasting capability, a releasefragmented into a header and several segments is transmitted to allboxes that are respectively configured to receive a proper releasepackage to update the library.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, boxes eithernewly installed or put back onto the network after a period of time areupdated efficiently, e.g., in a shortest possible time, to startproviding services. An original library in such a box is updated withthe most demanded titles first or the least amount of data possible sothat the box may be in condition sooner to not only fulfill orders forthe most demanded titles but also provide needed data to other boxes.Depending on implementation, the updating of the original library in abox may be carried out by receiving data chunks by a gossip protocolfrom other boxes that collectively have the latest titles or receivingproper release packages from a service provider via a broadcasting ormulticasting infrastructure.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, backup boxesare provided to support boxes designated to provide data to an orderingbox such that all data being transported among boxes is not delayed orinterrupted. Should one of the boxes providing the data to the orderingbox under-perform (e.g., due to operational issues in the box orundesirable network performance), a backup box may be launched toreplace or assist the underperforming box and to continue the supply ofdata to the ordering box. Other aspects of the invention will becomeapparent and appreciated by those skilled in the art from the detaileddescription herein.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in numerous ways,including a method, system, device, or a computer readable medium.Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below. In oneembodiment, the invention provides a method for providingmedia-on-demand services over a network, the method comprises receivinga request from an ordering box, the request including an order of atitle in a library; and identifying one or more boxes to providedistributed objects pertaining to the title to the ordering box, whereinthe ordering box proceeds with a playback of a residing objectpertaining the title while downloading the distributed objects from theone or more boxes.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a method for providing aviewing mechanism of all titles in a library in a box. The methodcomprises enabling selection of a title from a library of titles in abox, generating a request when one of the titles is selected, therequest including title information, transmitting the request over anetwork to a server configured to formulate a response, the responseincluding source information identifying one or more boxes to provideone or more distributed objects pertaining to the ordered title,initiating a playback of a residing object in the box pertaining to theordered title, receiving the one or more distributed objects from theone or more boxes as one or more streams of data, a portion of which isreceived during playback of the residing object, and initiating aplayback of the one or more streams of data together with any residingobjects pertaining to the ordered title, if any, as soon as the playbackof the residing object is finished.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a system forproviding media-on-demand services over a network. The system comprisesa plurality of boxes, respectively coupled to a network, each boxassociated with a user and providing a library of titles, each of theboxes including a storage space allowing a plurality of headers and aplurality of segments to reside therein, each of the boxes configured toprovide a request including title selection information; and a servercoupled to the network and configured to provide a response to a requestfrom one of the boxes (“an ordering box” hereafter), the responseincluding source information identifying a set of the boxes designed toprovide respective distributed segments pertaining to the title to theordering box, wherein, in responding to the response, the ordering boxinitiates playback of the header pertaining to the selected title whiledownloading one or more distributed segments from the set of the boxes.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a system formanaging objects distributed in a network. The system comprises aplurality of boxes, respectively coupled to the network, each associatedwith a user and providing a library of titles, each of the titlesrepresented by a header and a number of segments, each of the boxesincluding a storage space to locally cache the header, and none, or oneor more of the segments for each of the titles; and a computing deviceconfigured to provide a response after receiving a request from one ofthe boxes (“an ordering box” hereinafter), the request including anorder of one of the titles, the response including source informationidentifying a set of supplying boxes that are designated to providemissing segments pertaining to the title, if not all of the segments arelocally cached in the ordering box. In general, the library ispartitioned into a number of groups or bands, one of the bands (a “topband” hereinafter) including some of the titles that are most demanded,and another one of the bands (a “low band” hereinafter) including someof the titles that are least demanded. In one case, the number ofsegments for the titles in the top band is greater than the number ofsegments for the titles in the low band, leading to more distributedcopies for each of the titles in the top band than for titles in the lowband.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a method forfragmenting a file pertaining to a title, the method comprising:dividing the file into a sequence of data blocks, the sequence of datablocks partitioned into a first portion and a second portion; forming aheader from the data blocks in the first portion, the data blocks in theheader being consecutive; and forming N segments, each of the N segmentsincluding some of the data blocks in the second portion, with the datablocks in each of the N segments being nonconsecutive, wherein N is afinite integer greater than 1. The file is a collection of data togetherwith auxiliary data, if there is such auxiliary data. The header islocally cached in each box in service as a residing object, and M of theN segments are stored in a box, wherein the value of M differs fromtitle to title and box to box, and 0≦M≦N.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a method for keepinga library dynamically updated. The method comprises dividing a filepertaining to a title into a sequence of data chunks, wherein the titleis included in a release to update the library in each box in service,designating an initial set of seeding boxes to receive the data chunkscollectively, each of the seeding boxes receiving at least some of thedata chunks, and causing each of the seeding boxes to propagate at leastsome or all of the received data chunks to a set of the boxes, whereineach of the set of the boxes is caused to recursively propagate itsreceived data chunks to other boxes chosen to continue spreading of someor all of the received data chunks among the boxes till each of theboxes in service has received a designated portion of the data chunks.Essentially, each box receives what it is designated to receive. Themethod further comprises causing each of the boxes to recover the headerand none, or one or more of the segments from the some or all of thereceived data chunks, and subsequently updating the library therein.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a method forupdating contents in newly installed devices, the method comprisesdetermining a number of outdated titles in a library when a box newlypresent in a system offering media services is detected; determining acorresponding number of missing titles to add into the library and toretire the outdated titles from the library; causing the box toinitially retrieve data pertaining to relatively new titles in the setof missing titles so that the box is ready for servicing an order of oneof the relatively new titles; and keeping the box retrieving datapertaining to the remaining missing titles till the box is fullyupdated. In one case, the box retrieves a header for each of therelatively new titles, and then retrieves one of several segments foreach of them. In another case, the box retrieves a header and one ofseveral segments for each of the relatively new titles in an order ofdeclining popularity of the titles.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides a method fortransporting data in a distributed environment. The method comprisesdetermining whether a communication session has been established witheach of boxes designated to supply needed data segments in accordancewith source information provided by a computing device over a network,and downloading concurrently the needed data segments respectively fromthe designated boxes only after the communication session has beensuccessfully established with each of the designated boxes, wherein eachof the needed data segments includes a plurality of data blocks sampledfrom a sequence of data blocks representing a file.

In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a method for keeping alibrary dynamically updated, the method comprises preparing a release ina data package, the release including at least a title to update thelibrary; and transmitting the data package via a transmissioninfrastructure to boxes in service, wherein each of the boxes isconfigured to locally cache at least a portion of the data package, andnot every one of the boxes caches an identical portion of the datapackage. Depending on implementation, the transmission infrastructuremay be capable of broadcasting or multicasting. The data packageincludes a header and several segments for the title. The portion of thedata package locally cached in the each of the boxes includes the headerand none, or one or more of the segments. Alternatively, the datapackage includes a plurality of release packages, each including theheader and none, or one or more of the segments.

Accordingly one of the objects of the present inventions is to providetechniques that, when combined properly, can be used effectively toprovide an Instantaneous media-on-demand system.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon examining the following detailed description of anembodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals designate like structural elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a video delivery system that is commonly used fordelivering video services over a network, also referred to as aserver-and-client architecture;

FIG. 2A shows a configuration of a distributed network system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B, according to one embodiment, shows a file organized orfragmented into a header and four segments;

FIG. 2C shows a file pertaining to a title comprising one header andfour segments, assuming a situation in which a box locally stores theheader and receives the four segments from four other boxes to continuea playback of the title;

FIG. 2D shows a data stream representing a file, a beginning portion ofwhich being allocated as a header and a remaining portion beingdecimated into four individual segments;

FIG. 2E shows a flowchart or process of, in accordance with oneembodiment, fragmenting a file for distribution to a plurality of boxes;

FIG. 3A shows one exemplary popularity classification of titles in alibrary within a limited storage space in a box;

FIG. 3B shows another exemplary popularity classification of titles in alibrary within a limited storage space in a box;

FIG. 3C shows an exemplary banding scheme in accordance with thepopularity of the titles in a library;

FIG. 3D shows corresponding dependency of each title in a band for acontinuous playback in accordance with a banding shown in FIG. 3C;

FIG. 3E shows a flowchart or process of classifying a library of manytitles for instant access according to one embodiment;

FIG. 3F shows a flowchart or process of updating a library in a boxaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 4A shows a diagram of updating, synchronously or asynchronously, alibrary in all boxes in service according to one embodiment;

FIG. 4B shows a flowchart or process of seeding a release in boxes inservice according to one embodiment;

FIG. 4C shows an exemplary situation in which a service provider isprovided with an infrastructure of high bandwidth broadcastingcapability;

FIG. 4D shows a exemplary flowchart or process of seeding a release inboxes in service for a configuration in which the bandwidth forbroadcasting or multicasting is sufficient;

FIG. 5A shows progressive changes to a library in a new box, accordingto one embodiment;

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary situation in which three new boxes are addedinto the system;

FIG. 5C shows a flowchart or process of updating a library in a box thathas not been online for a period of time, and consequently has anobsolete library therein;

FIG. 6A shows one exemplary implementation of a server according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 6B shows an exemplary map illustrating how a library of 5000 titlesis distributed across N boxes;

FIG. 6C shows example source information as a table including an IPaddress (e.g., IPA1) for each of the four boxes that are designated tosupply segments for an ordered title;

FIG. 6D shows exemplary source information with backup boxes in a tablethat includes a backup identifier (shown as an IP address) for each ofthe designated boxes;

FIG. 6E shows one embodiment in which an ordering box is being supportedby three designated boxes, from which three respective segmentspertaining to an ordered title are respectively provided to the orderingbox, wherein the three designated boxes are respectively backed up bythree other boxes;

FIG. 6F shows another embodiment in which an ordering box is beingsupported by three designated boxes, wherein the three designated boxesare respectively backed up by three other boxes that at the same timebackup other designated boxes supporting other ordering boxes;

FIG. 6G shows a flowchart or process of starting an instant playback ofa selection (i.e., a title) in a library;

FIG. 7A shows one exemplary implementation of a box that may correspondto any one of the boxes of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 7B and FIG. 7C collectively show a flowchart or process of startingan instant playback of a selection (i.e., a title) according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7D shows the multiplexing of four streams of segments to generate adata stream for playback as soon as a first portion being played isfinished according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7E shows a flowchart or process of prioritizing tasks in a boxaccording to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 shows an architecture in which many aspects of the presentinvention are equally applied thereto.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention relate to various techniques for providingmedia services over data networks. Some of the techniques, when properlycombined, may provide instantaneous media-on-demand. One embodiment mayprovide a dynamic library with a significant number of titles from whicha user can select and order for playback fairly instantly. To facilitateinstant playback, a file pertaining to a title may be fragmented into aheader and several segments (a.k.a., tails). In one embodiment, theheader is seeded in all boxes and the segments are distributed withinthe network to the boxes according to a scheme. When a title is ordered,the header can be instantly played back while the segments, if notlocally available, can be streamed in from supporting boxes. Data fromthe segments being concurrently fetched can be multiplexed with locallycached segments, if any, to recover the remaining portion of the fileand continue playback of the ordered title.

In addition, in one embodiment, a library in each of the boxes inservice may be updated synchronously or asynchronously by propagatingdata chunks, e.g., using a gossip protocol, to all boxes in service. Anyboxes that are either newly installed or put back in the system after aperiod of time can be updated in a short time to start providingservices. Other possible features, benefits and advantages of theinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, byway of example, the principles of the invention.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The presentinvention may be practiced without these specific details. Thedescription and representation herein are the means used by thoseexperienced or skilled in the art to effectively convey the substance oftheir work to others skilled in the art. In other instances, well-knownmethods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been describedin detail since they are already well understood and to avoidunnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention.

Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment can be included in at least one implementation ofthe invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Further, the order of blocks inprocess, flowcharts or functional diagrams representing one or moreembodiments do not inherently indicate any particular order nor implylimitations in the invention.

For convenience, definitions for some terms are provided below. Itshould be noted that the definitions are to facilitate the understandingand description of the present invention according to one embodiment.The definitions may appear to include limitations with respect to theembodiment. However, the actual meaning of the terms may haveapplicability beyond such embodiment.

Media or video—used interchangeably herein, indicates multimedia data, acollection of which with other possible auxiliary data is referred to asa file. Because such a file is typically large in size, it is oftencompressed for storage or transmission in accordance with a commonlyused standard (e.g., H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4). Examples of avideo may include, but are not limited to, movies, games, footage, acollection of documentary or multimedia data.

Local device, computer, machine or, simply, box—used interchangeablyherein, is a computing device typically used by a user to access a mediafile. Such a client machine may operate independently or with anotherdevice. Examples of the client machine include a set-top box, acomputing device (such as a desktop, a laptop, a PDA, a telephone, atablet PC, etc.), a television with network capability and a networkstorage device.

Residing object and distributed object are relative terms. When a fileis divided into several pieces or segments, some of the segments may bedistributed remotely in other boxes. These distributed segments arereferred to as “distributed objects.” The header and other segmentscached locally are referred to as “residing objects” or “residentobjects.”

Server, server device, server computer, or server machine—usedinterchangeably herein, is a computing device, typically locatedremotely from local boxes. Depending on implementation, a server hereinmay mean a stand—alone computer or a cluster of two or more computersconfigured to deliver the server operations described herein.

Embodiments of the present invention are discussed herein with referenceto FIGS. 2A-8. However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat the detailed description given herein with respect to these figuresis for explanatory purposes only as the invention extends beyond theselimited embodiments.

One embodiment of the present invention is related to a technique fordelivering video services over a data network that is not adverselyaffected by a growing number of users. In one embodiment, the more usersthere are, the better the performance delivered by the system orprocess.

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary configuration 200 of a distributed networksystem 100, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.It will be appreciated that the entire network may comprise multiple ofsuch network systems 100, for example, one for each box of a particulartype, size, content, etc.

A server 202, presumably managed and/or populated by a service provider,is configured to handle the delivery of video (or multimedia) servicesto users via local machines or boxes 206-1, 206-2, . . . 206-n.Different from the video server 102 of FIG. 1 that delivers video datato a subscriber upon receiving a request therefrom, the server 202 isnot responsible for delivering the content in response to a request froma user, and instead is configured to provide source information as towhere and how to retrieve at least some of the content from other boxes.In other words, the server 102 of FIG. 1 requires the media storagedevice 112 to provide the content when any of the client machines 106-1,106-2, . . . 106-n is being serviced, while the server 202 does not needa media storage device to provide the content. Instead, some of theboxes 206-1, 206-2, . . . 206-n are respectively configured to supplypart or all of the content to each other.

According to one embodiment, when fulfilling a request from a localmachine or a box (e.g., 206-1), communication between the server 202 andthe box 206-1 over the network paths 208-1 and 210 may be limited tosmall-scale requests and responses (e.g., of small size and very short).A server response to a request from a box may include source information(e.g., identifiers), authorization information and security information.Using the response from the server 202, the box may be activated tobegin playback of a title (e.g., 207-1). Substantially at the same time,the box may initiate one or more requests to other boxes (e.g., 206-2and 206-n) in accordance with the source identifiers to requestsubsequent portions of the title (e.g., 207-2 and 207-n). Assumingproper authorization, the requesting box receives the subsequentportions of the data concurrently from the other boxes. Because ofbox-to-box communication of content, the bandwidth requirement forbox-to-server communications over the network paths 208-1 and 210 iskept low and typically short in duration. In the event there are a largenumber of user boxes issuing playback requests substantially at the sametime, the bandwidth of the backbone path 210 should be sufficient toavoid noticeable or burdensome delay.

The contents available in a library offered in any of the boxes 206-1,206-2, . . . 206-n are originally provided by one or more contentproviders. Examples of the content providers include satellitereceivers, television relay stations, analog or digital broadcastingstation, movie studios and Internet sites. Depending on implementation,the contents may be initially received or originated in the server 202.Instead of maintaining and managing the content in a large storagedevice, the server 202 is configured to distribute the content or filesto a plurality of local machines registered with the server 202. Theboxes 206-1, 206-2, . . . 206-n shown in FIG. 2A are examples of localmachines in service. Unless there is a need for a backup copy, theserver 202 at any time has no need to keep a copy of the content. On theother hand, unless there is a special need to keep a complete copy of anextremely high-demand title in a box, none of the boxes in service has acomplete copy of a title until an order is placed. Consequently, withembedded security in the distributed objects, some embodiments of thepresent invention may alleviate the concern of electronic piracy andwidespread distribution (e.g., by hacking or illegal duplication).

For convenience, it is assumed herein that a file pertaining to a titleis played back when the title is selected and ordered by a user. When anorder for a title is placed, a corresponding file must be available forplayback. Embodiments may enable a file, or at least a portion thereof,regardless of its size, to be accessed instantaneously. According toanother embodiment, where a file is 840 Mbytes on average and a boxincludes a storage capacity of 300 Gbytes, a system may offer a largelibrary of titles (e.g., 5000) for access at any time instantly. In theprior art, if the files for the titles must be stored in advance tooffer instantaneous playback, the local storage of a box would have tohave a capacity of 4,000 Gbytes, consequently, rendering instantaneousVOD economically impractical.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, only a beginningportion (referred to as a “header”) and possibly one or more tailsegments of a file are locally cached in a box. Such locally cachedsegments are referred to as residing objects, while segments notresiding locally are referred to as distributed objects. When a title isselected, the header of the corresponding file is instantly played back.During the time the header is being played, the distributed objectscorresponding to the title are retrieved simultaneously from otherboxes. When the header is finished, the received parts of thedistributed objects being streamed in from other boxes is combined withresiding objects for the title, if any, to enable continuous playback.Depending on the popularity and concurrent demand for a particulartitle, the number of residing objects may be increased or decreased tocontrol the dependency of each box on other boxes for playback.Typically, the more residing objects for a title a box has, the moredistributed copies of the title there are in the entire system and thusthe less dependency of the ordering box on the other boxes.

In one embodiment, the header is always played first to ensure instantplayback. However, when a box has more than one residing object for thefile, the residing objects other than the header (a.k.a., residentsegments) will be played together with the distributed objects (a.k.a.,distributed segments) being downloaded or fetched from the other boxes.These resident and distributed segments are collectively referred to as“segments” of a file.

For example, in FIG. 2A, when a user selects a title for playback from abox 206-1, a header 207-1 of the corresponding file residing in the box206-1 is instantly accessed (provided that the user has beenauthenticated and/or payment is settled). In this example, there may befour segments for the video file, two of which are distributed in otherboxes (e.g., 206-2 and 206-n). During the playback of the header, twodistributed segments are downloaded from the other two boxes and locallybuffered with the resident segments as continuing content. When theheader is done, the continuing content is played back. As a result,instantaneous VOD may be realized.

Referring to the embodiment of FIG. 2B, a file 220 is organized orfragmented in terms of a header portion 222 and a tail portioncomprising four segments 224. In general, the file 220 may be dividedinto any number of header and segment portions in consideration of arequired transmission rate (e.g., related to the encoding and decodingrates for successful playback), and the minimum uploading anddownloading capabilities of a network. According to one embodiment,given a required transmission rate (e.g., 1 megabit per second or 1Mbps), the minimum uploading and downloading speeds of a network areconsidered to determine a number that defines the segmentation, and thusthe dependency on other boxes and the support for concurrent demands ofa particular title. It is assumed that a minimum uploading speed is Uand a required transmission rate is D, and D/U=K<k, where k is thesmallest integer greater than K. In one embodiment, a file is preferablydivided into a header and k segments to optimally utilize the uploadingspeed of U, assuming that the downloading speed is at least k timesfaster than the uploading speed. For example, in a POTS-based DSLnetwork for residential areas, the required transmission is about 1.0Mbps while the uploading speed is about 320 kbps. Hence, k=4.

As shown in FIG. 2C, a file 230 comprises one header 232 and foursegments 234-237. FIG. 2C assumes a situation in which a local boxstores only the header 232 and depends on four other boxes to supply thefour segments 234-237. Assuming that the local box 239 has a downloadingspeed four times the uploading speed of the other boxes, while theheader 232 is being played back, the four segments can be downloadedconcurrently across the network 238 as streaming into the local box 239around the same time.

As also shown in FIG. 2B, a header 232 is the beginning portion of afile while each segment is a decimated portion of the remainder of thefile. In this embodiment, the data in the header is continuous, meaningthe header itself can be played back (e.g., the first 15 minutes of thetitle), while the segment portions 234-237 must be present togetherbefore the tail portion of the file can be played. FIG. 2D shows a datastream 240 representing a file. The beginning portion of the file 240 isallocated as a header 242 and the remaining portion is divided into four“vertical” segments 247-250. The segments 247-250 are created or formedby respectively sampling, in a decimated manner, the remaining portionof the file.

Depending on an exact data length of the remaining portion, the n-thdata block in each of the segments 247-250 is four successive datablocks in the remaining portion of the file. In one embodiment, a datablock comprises a chunk of data, for example, 256 Kbytes or 1 Mbyte. Asshown in FIG. 2D, the remaining portion of the data stream 240 isexpressed in data blocks as follows: b11, b21, b31, b41, b12, b22, b32,b42, b13, b23, b33, b43, . . . b1 n, b2 n, b3 n, b4 n. With thedecimated sampling, the four segments 247-250 obtained from theremaining portion can be respectively expressed as follows:Segment 1={b11, b12, b13, b14 . . . };Segment 2={b21, b22, b23, b24 . . . };Segment 3={b31, b32, b33x, b34 . . . }; andSegment 4={b41, b42, b43, b44 . . . }.

FIG. 2D shows one exemplary embodiment of fragmenting a file into aheader 242 and four segments 247-250. There can be other ways tofragment a file. For example, besides fragmenting a file into several“vertical” segments representing a tail portion of a file, one or moresegments may be allocated to represent audio portions of the file.Typically, a movie includes several audio tracks, each for a language(e.g., English, French or Spanish). As a result, all segments are notnecessarily equal in length but need to be available at the same time tosupport playback. This particular example illustrates that not allsegments for a title must be fetched to play back the title (e.g., allsegments for the video data and only one segment for one selected audiotrack). In another example, the file 220 can be segmented in terms ofred, green, blue, and brightness values. Thus, an image can be generatedeven if one of the segments is missing. Of course, forming an image fromred, green and brightness alone may compromise image quality. In such acase, colors may have to be estimated, possibly based on prior frames orother criteria. In general, different files may be fragmented intodifferent numbers of segments.

FIG. 2E shows a flowchart or process 260 of fragmenting a file fordistribution to a plurality of boxes. The process 260 may be implementedas a method, a process, and/or a system, or in software, hardware or acombination of both. At 261, the process 260 awaits a file to befragmented for distribution to boxes. When such a file becomesavailable, at 262, minimum uploading and downloading speeds for anetwork as well as a required transmission rate are obtained. Ingeneral, different networks could have different speeds. Although it isnot required to have the network uploading and downloading speeds todictate a number of fragments for the file, the knowledge of such speedsin view of the required transmission rate of the file enables the fileto be fragmented to make efficient use of the network speeds (orbandwidths).

At 264, the number of segments k for a file is determined with referenceto a number of factors including the minimum uploading and downloadingspeeds obtained from 262 and a required transmission rate of data forproper display (e.g., 1 Mbit per second). In one embodiment, the actualnumber of segments is chosen slightly greater than k, for example k+1,provided the downloading bandwidth is sufficient (greater than therequired transmission data rate). The extra segment, as will be furtherdescribed below, may provide extra time to stabilize or overcome networkor box instabilities.

The size of a file header is determined at 266. In general, a largerheader size results in fewer available titles in a library. In oneembodiment, the header size is determined to last just long enough toassure receiving and playing the remaining portion (in the distributedobjects) in a continuous fashion or, perhaps, may include some extratime for synchronizing the objects respectively being fetched and tomanage instabilities. In another embodiment, the header size isautomatically calculated as a function of a number of parameters such asthe minimum network speeds in an area being serviced, and scenes thatmay be translated to a higher transmission rate. In still anotherembodiment, a header is used as a carrier to transport other informationto boxes, for example, security information, and short footage ofcommercial information.

Not shown in FIG. 2E is an option to secure the file in its entirety. Inone embodiment, the file is scrambled in accordance with an encryptionscheme or by a cipher to protect the content therein, wherein the headermay be independently deciphered before playback. Regardless of whetherthe file is encrypted or clear, it can be fragmented as is. Once theheader size is determined at 266, the header portion is readily created.At the same time, the remaining portion of the file is decimated into ksegments. In another embodiment, the header and none, one or more of thek segments are distributed to each box in service. The details ofdetermining which box is to receive the segments will be describedbelow. In any case, the header and the segments may be secured beforedistribution. At 270, a certain type of security may be embedded intothe header and the segments. Depending on implementation, the header andthe segments may be respectively encrypted in accordance with anencryption scheme or a cipher (e.g., Data Encryption Standard algorithm,Blowfish block cipher, Twofish cipher and RC-4) and/or protected bydigital rights management (DRM).

At 274, the header and the segments (i.e., respective packages) aredistributed to each box in service. According to one embodiment of thepresent invention, the distribution is performed synchronously orasynchronously by propagating the respective packages as chunks of datafrom boxes to boxes, the details of which are described below. A box maybe selected to receive one, more or possibly all of the segments. After274, the process 260 goes back to 261 for another file.

One embodiment may enable a dynamically updated library with a largenumber of titles offered to users. Each of the titles may be selectedand ordered for instant playback. Given a large library, for example, of5000 titles that are updated periodically (e.g., daily) and can beaccessed anytime instantly, some of the titles may be more popular andthus demanded more often and by more users than others. To minimizepossible bandwidth problems or unavailability of boxes for sourcingpopular titles, the seeding of residing objects and distributed objectsshould be performed intelligently, e.g., according to popularity,geography, demographics, and/or like criteria.

FIG. 3A shows one exemplary popularity classification of titles in alibrary in a limited storage space 300 in a box. For convenience, it isassumed that the storage space 300 has a capacity of 300 Gbytes and thatthere are 5000 titles available for instant playback. Any of the 5000titles may be selected and instantly accessed for playback. For a VODapplication, each movie on average is assumed to be about two hours. Fordisplay quality acceptable to most users, a file for a two hour movie isabout 840 Mbytes in size. For a header of about 30 Mbytes, each of thefour segments, assuming each file's size is close to the average, musttherefore be about 203 Mbytes (i.e., (840 Mbytes-30 Mbytes)×¼). Thus,the storage space 300 must be about 240 Gbytes (i.e., 5000 titles×30Mbytes+50 titles×2 segments×203 Mbytes+50 titles×2 segments×203Mbytes+4900 titles×5% of the segments×203 Mbytes=240 Gbytes) toaccommodate the 5000 titles for a distribution as shown in FIG. 3A.

According to the embodiment of FIG. 3A, the 5000 titles are divided intotwo bands, a top band 302 for those newly released or more populartitles and a low (L) band 304 for those relatively less popular titlesbut still demanded from time to time (e.g., “007: James Bond” or Disneymovies for minors). If a library has 5000 titles, the top band 302 maybe allocated to accommodate 100 titles, and the low band 304 may beallocated to accommodate the remaining 4900 titles. As new titles arereleased and added into the top band, the titles already in the top band302 are either discarded or moved to the lower band 304. In anotherembodiment, the top band may further be divided into two bands, a high(H) band for the latest, for example, 50 titles and a medium (M) bandfor the next 50 slightly older titles.

The allocation of an M band facilitates flexible management of thetitles in the top band. It is estimated that over 70% of revenues in amovie rental business come from the titles in the top band and over 40%of the revenues from the titles in the H band. As will be furtherdescribed below, the number of segments for titles in the M band may bereduced or only a percentage of the titles in the M band may be cachedwith one or more segments, so as to allocate more resources to updatethe titles in the H band quickly or reduce the dependency of the titlesin the H band on other boxes.

In this embodiment, there are 50, 50 and 4900 titles, respectively, inthe H, M, and L bands. In general, when a box has been in service longenough, each title in the top band 302 is seeded with a header and oneor two corresponding segments, and each title in the L band is seededwith a header and some of the segments. As far as the number of segmentsper each title in the L band is concerned, only a percentage of thetitles therein are seeded with one segment per each title, and thosetitles are typically different from one box to other box. Because thedemand for a title in the top band 302 is much higher than those in theL band 304, the percentage of segments in a box for titles in the L bandmay be set at a relatively small number, for example, 5%. Thedistribution of the segments for the titles in the L band is made insuch a way that there is always at least one distributed copy of thesetitles in the system and more distributed segments of titles in the topband. From another perspective, if a title in the top band 302 isselected, there are more boxes that may be designated to supply thedistributed segments to support the playback of the title in theordering box, thus reducing the possibility that other boxes would beunavailable to supply the missing segments. If a title in the low bandis selected, because of the relatively low popularity, it is likely thatthere will be sufficient distributed copies available in the network sothat other boxes can be designated to supply the respective segments forplayback.

In operation, when a title in the H band is selected in a box, two ofits segments already reside in the box. Thus, only two other boxes areneeded to feed the two missing segments (i.e., dependency=2). When atitle in the L band is selected, in many cases, four other boxes areneeded to feed the four segments (i.e., dependency=4). In other words,the popularity of a title determines the dependency of an ordering boxon others. The more popular a title is, the less dependent the orderingbox is on others.

As described above, a library is updated periodically (e.g., daily orweekly). Every time, a new title is received, the new title is typicallyadded into the H band. In one embodiment, it is desirable to maintain arelatively fixed number of titles in the H, M and L bands, therelatively least popular title in the H band is moved to the M bandwhile the oldest title or relatively least popular title in the M bandis moved to the L band. On the other hand, it is possible, althoughrare, that a title in the L band or the M band is promoted to a higherband. Whenever a title is retired from the M band to the L band, theoldest or relatively least popular title in the L band may be discarded.In accordance with FIG. 3A, whenever a title is moved from the top band302 to the L band 304, one or both segments from the top band 302 may bedropped depending on whether the title falls in the percentage that isdesignated to maintain one segment.

In general, there is more than one title released in a day to update alibrary. However, not all of the titles are necessarily new titles(i.e., for the top band), some being very popular and others being lesspopular. For example, a library may be updated with ten titles in a day,one newly released title in the top band and nine less popular titles inthe L band. When the title is added to the top band, two correspondingsegments are also added, and at the same time, a relatively old titlefrom the top band (e.g., likely from the M band) may be discarded ormoved to the L band. The relatively old title from the M band may becombined with the nine titles to be determined whether any of these tentitles fall into the percentage (e.g., 5%) for which one segment issupposed to be cached locally for a particular box.

In the embodiment, each box caches 5000 headers (possibly identical,possibly different, e.g., in size, possibly different in format,possibly different in security used, etc.), one per available title.These residing objects ensure that a user can begin playback instantlywhen a title is ordered and can continue playback long enough to startreceiving the distributed objects from other boxes. To facilitate thedescription of the distribution of segments, the four segments arelabeled respectively as 1, 2, 3 and 4. For titles in the top band 302,there are two segments distributed locally and two segments distributedin other two boxes. As a result, there are six possible combinations oflocally stored segments: (segment 1, segment 2), (segment 1, segment 3),(segment 1, segment 4), (segment 2, segment 3), (segment 2, segment 4),(segment 3, segment 4). These combinations are distributed fairly evenlyamong the boxes in service. If an ordering box has segment 1 and segment2, a first other box and a second other box need to be called upon toprovide segment 3 and segment 4, respectively, to the ordering box. Anybox that has either segment 3 or segment 4 may be the first or thesecond other box. For example, a box with (segment 1, segment 3) andanother box with (segment 1, segment 4) may be the first and secondother boxes, respectively.

In one embodiment, boxes are classified into types. For example, thereare six types of boxes, each designated for storage of one of the sixcombinations provided above. If there are 50 titles in the H band,besides a corresponding header in each of the boxes, the segments foreach of the 50 titles are distributed according to one of the sixcombinations.

For titles in the L band, each box stores one segment of 5% of thetitles. When one of the titles in the L band is ordered, that box may ormay not have a segment cached locally. Accordingly, the distribution ofthe segments for the titles in the L band must ensure that boxes inservice collectively have all segments for all the titles. In otherwords, there must be at least one copy in the network of each title inthe L band.

There are a number of ways to distribute the segments for titles in theL band among the boxes in service. According to one embodiment, tofacilitate the management of the distribution of the segments for thetitles in the L band, the distribution of segments for titles in the Hband is referenced. For example, when segment 1 and segment 2 for atitle in the H band are stored locally, either segment 1 or segment 2for a title in the L band will be stored locally (since the box needonly discard one of the segments when retiring a title from the top bandto the low band). Accordingly, the following management of thedistribution holds:

Store locally for a If segments for titles title in the L band in the Hband are segment 1 or 2 segment 1 and 2 segment 1 or 3 segment 1 and 3segment 1 or 4 segment 1 and 4 segment 2 or 3 segment 2 and 3 segment 2or 4 segment 2 and 4 segment 3 or 4 segment 3 and 4

The determination of which titles in the L band fall into the selectedpercentage for a particular box may be determined based on a number offactors. In one embodiment, the percentage is determined as apotentially randomized function of the ages or popularity of the titles.In another embodiment, the percentage is determined based on statisticsof viewing behavior and a preferred language in an area or othermeasures that may facilitate the retrieval of distributed objects fromother boxes more efficiently. In still another embodiment, thepercentage is determined from a learning engine that may be embedded ina box dynamically recording some or all of the following exemplary list:

-   -   1. the set of programs (e.g., movies) a user has been watching        so far from the box;    -   2. the programs that user has rated (e.g., on a scale of 1        to 10) on the box;    -   3. the programs on a wish list created by the user for future        watching; and    -   4. browsing activities (e.g., trailers the user has watched and        the time the user has spent on reading a brief introduction for        a title).

The learning engine may be activated to provide statistics to suggestwhich programs, e.g., movies are similar to the ones the user haswatched (e.g., with respect to actors, directors, or genres).Accordingly, these movies are chosen to be among the percentage of thetitles to have the corresponding segments. In addition, thedetermination of which pairs of movies are similar may be made based onwhat is referred to as “collaborative filtering”, namely, if many userslike to watch a pair of movies, then the two movies may be consideredsimilar. Thus, additional movies similar to those likely selected andordered in the box may be added to the percentage of titles as well. Inany case, a box may cache segments pertaining to titles that are morelikely going to be selected and ordered by a user via the box. Inanother embodiment, each movie may be defined by certain attributes.User behavior may suggest user preferences of certain attributes. Bymatching preferred attributes to movie attributes, the learning enginemay determine which segments for 1 band titles to store in each box.Also, comparisons can be made between like but different users. Forexample, if a first user prefers action-based movies and has previouslyordered movies X, Y and Z and if a second user prefers action-basedmovies, the learning engine may opt to store segments for movies X, Yand Z on the second user's box.

FIG. 3B shows another exemplary popularity classification of titles in alibrary within a limited storage space 310 in a box. One of the majordifferences between FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B is that the top band 302 in FIG.3A retains one header and two segments for each title therein while thetop band 310 in FIG. 3B retains one header and one segment for eachtitle therein.

Contrary to FIG. 3A or FIG. 3B, according to one embodiment, all boxesin service may be configured to include more than two segments for oneor more titles in the H band, essentially increasing the number ofdistributed copies of those highly demanded titles. When a title isnewly released or statistically determined popular, the boxes in servicecan be activated to increase the number of segments for these titles sothat dependency of an ordering box on others is significantly reduced.

FIG. 3C shows another exemplary banding scheme in accordance with thepopularity of the titles in a library. The banding scheme divides titlesin a library into multiple bands (e.g., 5 bands). The curve 320 shows A,B, C, D and E bands with the A band representing the most popular titlesand the E band representing the relatively least popular titles in thelibrary. The titles available in each of the bands may be updatedperiodically according to one or more measurements from, for example,demand statistics, geographic locations, a preferred language, age ofthe title, demographic information, or the like. Each box will store theheader and all of the corresponding segments for titles in the A band(e.g., one or two newly released titles). Each box will store the headerand three segments locally for titles in the B band. Each box will storethe header and two segments locally for titles in the C band. Each boxwill store the header and one segment locally for titles in the D band.And, each box will store the header and one segment locally for a smallpercentage, say 5%, of titles in the E band. As a result, the dependencyof each title in a band for a continuous playback as listed in a table326 shown in FIG. 3D is 0, 1, 2, 3 and possibly 4, respectively.

For completeness, the table 326 also includes a column 328 showingexemplary statistics of demands for titles in each of the bands, namely,the demands for the titles in the band A are expected to be about 60% ofthe overall requests for the library. The declining demand for titles inbands B, C, D and E are illustrated as 20%, 10%, 8% and 2%. Althoughthere may be a huge demand for a title in band A, the dependency of theordering box on other boxes for a title in band A is zero. Therefore,orders for titles in band A can be locally fulfilled. On the other hand,the demand for titles in bands B, C, D and E progressively decreases.Accordingly, the dependency of an ordering box in bands B, C, D and Eprogressively increases. Distributed copies of titles in the bands B, C,D and E progressively decrease.

The banding scheme described above with reference to FIGS. 3C and 3D maybe extended logically to any number of bands for a specified number ofsegments in accordance with the popularity of the title. For example, wemay introduce a band B′ that lies between bands B and C in the previousexample, with each box storing an average of 2.5 segments per title inthe band. One way to create and control such an average number ofsegments would to let half the boxes store 2 segments and half the nodesstore three. In an extreme case, each title would not only have adifferent number of segments, but each box may also independentlydetermine how many segments to cache locally for each title. In general,the more popular a title is, the more segments there will be locallycached and the more distributed copies there will be available in thenetwork. In any case, when a title in a library has no segment locallycached, there must be at least one copy of all corresponding segments inthe network. Otherwise, an order for such a title could not be rendered.

FIG. 3E shows a flowchart or process 360 of classifying a library oftitles for instant access. The process 360 may be implemented insoftware, hardware or a combination of both as a method, a process,and/or a system. When the process 360 is employed in a VOD system, afile pertaining to a title may be fragmented in accordance with theprocess 260 of FIG. 2E into a header and one or more segments. At 362,it is necessary to determine how files pertaining to the titles shouldbe distributed, thereby defining the number of titles stored in eachlibrary. In general, the number of titles available in a library is afunction of a number of factors that include the capacity of a storagespace in boxes, header size, network speeds, demand, file size, requireddata transmission speeds, concurrency support, etc. In one embodiment,it is determined that 5000 titles may be offered in a library, eachlasting for two hours on average and comprising 840 Mbytes-1 Gbyte insize. The process 260 of FIG. 2E may be used to determine fragmentationof the files. Once the number of the bands is determined, the process360 goes to 364.

At 364, the titles are classified into bands. At least, two bands areused, a top band for the most popular titles (e.g., new releases) and alow band for relatively less popular titles. Depending onimplementation, one or more intermediate bands may be introduced tostore titles that neither fit in the top band nor the low band and tofacilitate updating a library. As described above, there will be moredistributed copies of titles in the top band than those in other bandsto accommodate concurrent orders. In operation, the number of titles inthe top band is preferably kept small to optimize the use of the storagespace in a box.

At 366, the number of segments for each band is determined. According toone embodiment, more segments for a title in the top band are locallycached, which translates to more distributed copies available in thenetwork. As a result, for a more popular title, an ordering box dependsless on other boxes to supply the segments needed for continuousplayback of the title. On the other hand, only a percentage of titles inthe low band are locally cached, which translates to fewer distributedcopies available in the network. If the system is configured to includeintermediate bands, the number of segments to be locally cached maydecrease progressively from the top band.

At 368, the process 360 determines the boxes in which to cache segments.Depending on implementation, a segment distribution scheme may be basedon different factors to optimize segment caching for efficient storageand effective sourcing of titles. In one embodiment, the distribution ofsegments is determined based on viewing behaviors. By examining theviewing behaviors of users, it may be determined statistically which boxis more likely to order a particular title. For example, users whofrequently order action movies are more likely to order another actionmovie. When distributing segments pertaining to titles for actionmovies, the distribution may be orchestrated to ensure that thesesegments end up in boxes that are statistically more likely to orderaction movies. In another embodiment, distribution may be based onpreferred languages. The distribution of segments pertaining to titlesin a preferred language, e.g., Spanish, may be made so that suchsegments end up in boxes associated with boxes statistically more likelyto order movies in the preferred language.

FIG. 3F shows a flowchart or process 380 of updating a library in a box.The process 380 may be implemented in software, hardware or acombination of both, and as a method, a process, and/or a system. Whenthe process 380 is employed in a VOD system, a large file pertaining toa title may be fragmented in accordance with the process 260 of FIG. 2Einto a header and several segments. A library in each box is updatedperiodically or at a predetermined time. The process 380 may be used todynamically update the library so that all boxes in service aresynchronized in terms of the titles available.

At 382, the process 380 awaits a release. As will be further describedbelow, a release (comprising one or more titles) may be provideddirectly from a server (e.g., the server 202 of FIG. 2A) or propagatedfrom other boxes. Each title in the release is fragmented into a headerand a number of segments (e.g., by the process 260 of FIG. 2E). For atitle that has been fragmented into a header and four segments, thereare six different release packages that boxes may desire (for thosetitles that require a header and two segments): (header, segment 1,segment 2), (header, segment 1, segment 3), (header, segment 1, segment4), (header, segment 2, segment 3), (header, segment 2, segment 4), and(header, segment 3, segment 4). At least one of these release packageswill be received in a box.

In one embodiment, upon receiving a message that a release is availableor data set from either the server or a box, process 380 begins. At 384,in accordance with the release package, an appropriate band for eachtitle in the release is determined. As described above, the title maypertain to any type (e.g., a high band or a low band). Therefore anappropriate band to accommodate the title is determined. To avoidexceeding a predefined number of titles in a band, an existing butrelatively least popular title in the band is preferably retired fromthe band. At 386, such relatively least popular title in the band isdetermined. In one embodiment, a received message pertaining to therelease indicates which existing title in which band is to be discardedor moved to a lower band. At 388, the title is added into the allocatedband by receiving in the box the header and the corresponding segments(which may be none) pertaining to the title.

At 390, a library list in the box is updated. Depending onimplementation, the library list may be updated locally by removing theretired title and adding the new title, or an updated library list maybe received. As a result, the retired title would no longer be availableand the new title would be available for order.

Referring now to FIG. 4A, there shows a diagram 400 of updating alibrary of all boxes in service. When a server (e.g., the server 202 ofFIG. 2A) updates the library, the library in all the boxes is updatedaccordingly. According to one embodiment, the updating process iscarried synchronously and/or asynchronously.

The server 402 is configured to prepare a file pertaining to the releaseof a title into a header and segments. One exemplary method to preparethe file is the process 260 of FIG. 2E. For convenience, it is assumedthat there are a header and four segments. Accordingly, as describedabove, depending on which band the release is to be put in, there may bea plurality of release packages. In operation, each of the boxes inservice is configured to receive one release package.

Initially, the server prepares a release instruction including metadataabout a release, a least popular title to be discarded from the libraryand/or title transfers. The instruction may describe which box getswhich of the release packages and how (the package is to be received(i.e., from which other boxes). For example, the instruction couldspecify that boxes identified by identifiers that demonstrate certaincharacteristics are to receive a release package X. There may be adefault instruction that applies in general to all releases, and theremay be instructions tailored to specific releases as well. One of theobjectives of assigning release packages to boxes may be to distributethe packages fairly evenly among all boxes in service to ensure uniformdistribution of different segments.

The release instruction, once prepared by the server, is propagated toboxes in service either via direct communication between the server anda box, or by box-to-box propagation of the instruction via a gossipprotocol, which will be described in detail below. In any case, it isassumed that each box recognizes the need for it to receive a particularrelease package.

The release is transformed into a sequence of data chunks 403representing the header and segments for the release. A data chunk is anatomic unit of data transfer from the server to the boxes, or betweentwo boxes. For example, each of the data chunks may be 1 Mbyte in sizeand uniquely identified. The sequence of data chunks 403 may representtwo separate titles being propagated to the boxes to update the library.In general, each box desires a specific subset of the data chunks thatmake up a proper release package corresponding to that box. In addition,the release instruction itself may be represented as one or more datachunks that are to be propagated to all boxes.

In operation, the server 402 initiates respective communications with aset of boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . . 404-n and provides each of them withsome of the data chunks required by that box. Preferably, each datachunk is seeded into at least one of the boxes by the server 402. Theexact number of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . . 404-n initially to receivethe data chunks does not constrain distribution. In one embodiment, thedesignation of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . . 404-n is fairly random. Inanother embodiment, the designation of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . .404-n is based on one or more of a time zone, the geographical location,an available network bandwidth, and the latency thereof, the Internetservice provider for the box, etc. In any case, whenever the server 402is idle, the server 402 can always designate different boxes to receivedata chunks.

Each of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . . 404-n is configured to spread datachunks to other boxes in service based on what is commonly referred toas a “gossip protocol,” an application-layer multicast-like protocol. Itshould be noted that not all of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . . . and 404-nhave received identical data chunks. Any of the boxes 404-1, 404-2, . .. and 404-n may start to spread a data chunk to other boxes as soon asit has received a data chunk in its entirety. In operation, the box404-1 is assigned to propagate at least some of its received data chunksto boxes 406-1, 406-2 and 406-3, communicating with one or more of theseboxes simultaneously. The box 404-2 is assigned to propagate at leastsome of its received data chunks to boxes 406-2 and 406-3. The box 406-2is configured to know exactly what data chunks to get from the box404-1, the box 404-2, and any other boxes configured to feed it chunksof data. Further, the box 406-2 is assigned to propagate at least someof its received data chunks to boxes 408-1, 408-2 and 408-3. Note thatthe propagation of data is not necessarily hierarchical. For example,box 408-1 might send data chunks “backward” to 406-1, as seen in thefigure.

In one embodiment, data chunks are propagated only to boxes thatactually desire those particular chunks in order to avoid wasteful datatransmission. Moreover, wasteful data transmissions may be avoided byensuring that a data chunk is propagated to a box only if it does notalready possess that chunk and is not in the process of downloading thatchunk from elsewhere. The propagation of chunks may be throughsynchronous protocols where all boxes participate at the same time in acoordinated fashion, or asynchronous protocols in which each box maychoose when to participate and for how long in a flexible manner. Forexample, a box could cease participating in the downloading andpropagation of chunks whenever it is busy serving a movie for anordering box, or when the network is detected to be in a period ofintense usage. The box may continuously monitor the network conditions,and adaptively rejoin the gossiping propagation when there is sufficientbandwidth available.

In operation, if any one of the boxes, for whatever reason, fails toaccept data chunks, the box could be dropped as a supplier or asubstitute box could be configured to receive and supply the data chunk.The box that missed the release may fetch the data later from one ormore updated boxes. By repeatedly and recursively propagating datachunks via boxes after boxes (i.e., by pulling or pushing synchronouslyand/or asynchronously), eventually all boxes in service will bepopulated with each release (the header and designated segments of alltitles to be added and the identification of titles to be removed).

After updating is finished, a map 409 identifying which box has whichsegments can be developed. By the map 409, whenever an order is receivedfrom an ordering box, the server can designate appropriate boxes tosupply the non-locally cached segments to the ordering box.Alternatively, the map 409 enables a box to obtain source information tofetch needed segments to fulfill an order.

When the release is not for the top band, the determination of which boxto retain what segment(s) may be based on several factors such asgeographic locations, time zone, viewing behaviors or a preferredlanguage so as to maximize the efficiency of transporting the segmentsamong the boxes when needed.

It should be appreciated that deletion of titles from a list ofavailable titles may be distributed to the boxes first. That way, no boxwill order a title that is no longer available. Distributing titledeletion instructions may be implemented using the gossip protocoldiscussed above or may be provided by direct box-to-servercommunication.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, there shows a flowchart or process 410 ofseeding a release to boxes in service. The process 410 may beimplemented in software, hardware or a combination of both. The process410 is particularly useful to update a directory that is maintained inmultiple locations without using a centralized server. One of thepossible features, advantages and benefits of the process 410 is thatthe directory in the multiple locations is updated synchronously and/orasynchronously by propagating an update in data chunks via locations tolocations by an application-layer multicast-like gossip protocol. Whenthe process 410 is employed in a VOD system, a library with many titlesmay be updated dynamically or efficiently without requiring highbandwidth to support simultaneous updating.

At 412, the process awaits a release that may become available at adevice (e.g., a server by a service provider) on the data network. Whenthe release becomes available, the files pertaining to the release areprepared in a server at 414 for distribution to the boxes. The process260 of FIG. 2E may be an exemplary process for fragmentation into aheader and corresponding segments for each of the files.

At 416, the header and segments are divided into chunks of data. At 418,the server designates an initial set of boxes to receive at least someof the data chunks. In one embodiment, the boxes may not receiveidentical data chunks. Depending on implementation, the server may pushrespective sets of data chunks to the initial boxes or the initial boxesmay pull respective set of data chunks from the server. In someembodiments, a copy of all data chunks is distributed to the initialboxes so that the initial boxes may seed the other boxes in the systemwithout further involving the server.

At 420, the process 410 determines whether any one of the boxes wereunable to receive any of the data chunks. If there is a box that doesnot receive the data chunks, the process goes to 422 where a box thatdoes not belong to the initial set replaces the failing one. As aresult, at least one complete set of data chunks may be initiallydistributed synchronously or asynchronously among the set of seedingboxes.

The process 410 then moves to 424, where each of the seeding boxes isconfigured to spread at least some of the received data chunks to one ormore other boxes (e.g., another set of boxes physically nearby), each ofwhich is configured to further spread at least some of its received datachunks to other boxes. It should be noted that any box may at the sametime communicate with more than one box to collectively fetch datachunks. The process 410 then returns to 412 awaiting any other release.

In operation, the process 410 is not limited to updating a library onetitle at a time. By transforming titles into data chunks, more than onetitle may be spread into the system by propagating the data chunks fromboxes to boxes asynchronously. Also the process 410 does not have to endbefore another title can be distributed. Before one release has beencompletely seeded in the boxes in service, another release may be madeavailable for distribution. In operation, the process 410 is preferablystarted when network traffic is low, such as at midnight. Typically, theprocess 410 may take hours to finish.

FIG. 4D shows a flowchart or process 440 of seeding a release to boxesin service for a configuration in which a service provider is providedwith one or more high-bandwidth channels for broadcasting ormulticasting. Such configuration may be found in a cable or satelliteinfrastructure that enjoys very high speed broadcasting or multicastingcapability, or in a data network with multicast support. The process410, preferably understood in conjunction with FIG. 4C, takes advantagesof such infrastructure to update a library in boxes with one or moretitles, wherein the boxes are assumed to be equipped with the receivingcapability (e.g., tuners) and tuned to appropriate channel(s) forreceiving the broadcast(s). Examples of such boxes include a satellitereceiving box and a cable set-top box.

As shown in FIG. 4C, a server 432 is coupled to a network 436 that maybe a cable network (i.e., the coaxial cables or fibers as the medium) ora satellite network (i.e., the air as the transmission medium). Similarto the server 402 of FIG. 4A, the server 432 is responsible fordistributing a release. At 442, the process 440 awaits a release. Theprocess 440 is activated when a release become available. The titlespertaining to the release is prepared at 444 in the server 432 fordistribution to the boxes. The process 260 of FIG. 2E is an exemplaryprocess for fragmentation into a header and corresponding segments foreach title.

At 446, a release package including the header and all segments for alltitles is broadcast to the network 436 at a predefined time orperiodically. In accordance with an instruction that may be receivedfrom the server 432 or that may be locally configured, each box capturesand caches the data in accordance with its configuration from therelease at 448. For example, a box supposed to receive a header and nosegments only captures and caches the header. If a box is supposed toreceive a header and two segments, the box only captures and caches theheader and the two segments.

Since each of the boxes in service chooses appropriate data from theconsolidated single release package, the library in each box is updatedsynchronously. In the event that some boxes are unable to update at thetime of broadcast, these boxes can be updated in a next broadcast orasynchronously with other updated boxes using the process 410 of FIG. 4Bas described above. In one embodiment, multiple channels in the cable orsatellite infrastructure may be utilized to expedite the updatingprocess by broadcasting or multicasting, for example, a respectiverelease package in a specified channel. As described above, in onescenario, there may be six different release packages, each for one typeof box. As such, a box may be configured to tune to the specific channelfor its release.

New boxes recently placed in service or recently reconnected to anetwork after a lengthy period of time are collectively referred toherein as new boxes. These new boxes may be empty or include headers andsegments of titles available at the time of being packaged for shipmentor being unplugged from the network, but now pertaining to some titlescurrently available and some titles currently unavailable. During thetime these new boxes were disconnected from the network, the library inactive boxes will have been updated many times. As a result, theoriginal library will be outdated.

It is assumed that a service provider updates a library with tenreleases each day and the total number of titles in the library is 5000.If the idle time is ten days, the original library has missed onehundred releases. If the idle time is about six months, the originallibrary in the boxes would be outdated by about 1800 releases. FIG. 5Ashows progressive updates to a library 500 according to one embodiment.At the time of becoming a new box (being unplugged or just copied withthe library before shipment), the box includes 100 titles in the topband 504 and 4900 titles in the low band 506. For a box that has beenout of service for 180 days, the library status 510 shows how outdatedthe box is, namely, that the library 500 has missed 1800 releases, 100of which are the releases that in the top band 504 and 1700 of which arereleases in the low band 506. It will be appreciated that, if there is arun on stores to purchase these boxes, there will not be many titles toupdate. Similarly, if there is not a run on stores to purchase theseboxes, then there will not be many boxes to update, even though thetitles in the new boxes may be quite outdated.

It is commonly understood that releases decline in demand or popularityover time and eventually are put into a low band 506. Therefore, after180 days, there are about 1800 titles in the original library 500 thatshould be retired, and only 3200 titles in the original library 500 thatmay remain in the library 510. In one embodiment, the 1800 titles willbe retired immediately at the time the box is put into service since thenetwork no longer supports them.

To update the library 510, the box must receive the 1800 missing headersand segments corresponding to the box type and band information. Todownload each of the headers and corresponding segments for the 1800releases, subject to the bandwidth of a network, it could take days,weeks or even months before the box could be used for ordering a title,which is not operationally desired.

In one embodiment, the process of speeding up the update of a box isachieved by dividing the top band into additional bands. For example,there may be two bands, referred to as high (H) and Medium (M) band,respectively. Each band may be assigned a number of titles, for example50 titles in the H band and 50 titles in the M band. For convenience,FIG. 3A may be used as an exemplary popularity classification of titleswith the H band, the M band and the L band. To reduce the time a boxneeds to update the library, the fetching of a large number of segmentsfor the M band may be avoided. The rationale behind this idea is thattitles in the M band are declining in popularity anyway, and will soonnot need that many distributed segments in the network to supportconcurrent demand. Thus, for example, a new box may choose to treat theM band titles like the L band, and store one segment for only a smallpercentage of these titles.

In the same or another embodiment, a box enables the user to quicklygain access to the popular titles in the library, and soon gain accessto the entire library, by fetching the headers of the missing titlesbefore fetching the segments. It is to be noted that the user can orderand play back a title so long as the header is present locally in a box;no segments need to be cached locally to enable playback, even if thetitle happens to be in the H band, since it will be possible to fetchthe distributed segments from across the network. Therefore, a goodstrategy for updating a box is to give precedence to fetching headersahead of tails, and moreover, order the sequence in which headers arefetched according to title popularity, so that the most popular titlesare made immediately available.

In the same or another embodiment, some tail segments may be givenhigher precedence over some headers, so that some segments are quicklyreceived by a box and it can start acting as a useful supplier ofsegments and serve demand from other boxes. It may be appreciated thatthere are many different ways to determine which segments are givenprecedence over which headers, depending on the trade-off that needs tobe struck between how quickly the user needs to be given access to theentire library, and how critical it is that the user's box becomes auseful supplier that bears some of the system's load. We describe oneparticular embodiment of precedence choices involving headers andsegments below.

According to one embodiment, a new box begins by downloading a headerand one corresponding segment for each of the 50 titles in the H band;this data may be fetched from other boxes that have the correspondingheaders and respective segments for the 50 titles. The library status512 shows the desired status of the H band being updated on Day 1(assuming that the entire update of the H band finishes in a day). Itmay be appreciated that there may be several ways to update the titlesin the H band. In one embodiment, the headers for the H band startingfrom the most demanded title are progressively fetched first, followedby the segments for each title in the H band. In another embodiment, aheader and corresponding segment for each title in the H band, startingfrom the most demanded title, are progressively fetched first.

After the 50 titles in the H band are nearly updated (in the case whereeach H band title requires two local segments, each title still has onemissing segment at this stage), the 50 titles in the M band are to beupdated next. However, during the updating of the 50 titles in the Hband, other titles are being added into the library by dynamic updating.As a result, there may be less than 50 titles in the M band to beupdated because one or more titles may have been retired from the H bandinto the M band (shown by arrows in the figure). In one embodiment, aheader for each of the titles in the M band is fetched from other boxesin service and one segment for only 5% of the titles in the M band isfetched. In another embodiment, only the headers for the M band titlemay be fetched, leaving the segments to be fetched later on. Theintermediate status of the M band can be better appreciated in FIG. 3Ato explain why there are zero, one and two segments for the titles inthe M band.

After day 1+X (see library status 514), where X indicates the timerequired to update the H and M bands, depending on the network speeds, acertain number of the titles from the H band may be retired into the Mband, and at the same time, a corresponding number of the titles in theM band may be retired into the L band. If the library is organizedprogressively in terms of ages of the titles in the library, it may beappreciated that the original 100 titles in the library status 502 havebeen shifted and that, although there are 1700 titles in the L band thatshould have been updated, the retirements from the top band 504 has infact reduced the actual number of the titles to be updated. At thistime, the headers for titles in the L band are fetched continuously,until headers are received for all missing titles. Finally, all missingsegments are fetched as well, for titles in the H, M and L bands.Library status 516 depicts the final state of the library after theupdating process is completed.

FIG. 5B shows a situation 530 in which three boxes 532-534 have justbeen added into the system. After the three boxes 532-534 haveregistered respectively with a server 536 with their respectiveidentifiers and/or IP addresses and library statuses, the server 536returns with information on what these boxes have missed in the past andhow to get updated, for example, where to fetch the missing titles. Thesituation 530 shows that the box 532 shall initially fetch the missingtitles (e.g., a header, or perhaps a corresponding segment) from a groupof boxes 537-540, and the boxes 533 and 534 shall initially fetch themissing headers from a group of boxes 543 and 544, respectively. It isnoted that in operation a box (i.e., 532) is configured to dynamicallyswitch from boxes to boxes to fetch corresponding headers and/orsegments.

It is assumed that the three boxes 532-534 are initially updated withone header and one segment for each of the titles in the top band (i.e.,the H band). In operation, the three boxes 532-534 can be candidates tostart serving others (e.g., for titles in the H band). In FIG. 5B, anordering box 542 is placing an order for a title in the top band. It isalso assumed that the title pertains to a file that has a header andfour segments, two of which reside in the ordering box 542. Thereforethe ordering box 542 needs to fetch the other two missing segments.While the header for the title is being played, the ordering box 542 mayget the missing segments from any two of the boxes 532-534, providedthat each of them has one of the two missing segments and not all ofthem have an identical one of the two missing segments. As the boxgroups 537-540, 543 and 544 are busy to update the boxes 532-534, theboxes 532-534 start to serve others as soon as segments for the releasesin the H band become available. Hence, it may be appreciated that themaximum sustainable concurrency for titles in the H band remainsunchanged. Moreover, it will be appreciated that playback support fornewly released titles may be diverted to the new boxes, since the newboxes can only support playback of the new releases. This could reducetraffic problems significantly and improve the maximum concurrencysustainable for a title in any band.

Referring now to FIG. 5C, there shows a flowchart or process 550 ofupdating a library in a box that has not been online for a period oftime, perhaps due to its being on store shelves for a long period afterit has been manufactured. The process 550 may be implemented insoftware, hardware or a combination of both as a method, a process,and/or a system. The process 550 awaits any new boxes that are coupledto a network at 552. The process 550 is activated when a new box isdetected in the network or a server is notified of the presence of a newbox. In one embodiment, the new box, once powered and connected to thenetwork, is configured to automatically inform and/or register with aserver associated with a service provider. The box may send anotification including its identifier and an IP address thereof, andperhaps the date/time the box was last updated.

At 553, the process 550 detects whether the library in the box needs tobe updated in accordance with a record. There are cases that the libraryin a box does not need to be updated; for example, if the box waspowered off for a short period of time, it may not have missed any newcontent. In one embodiment, the server determines whether the libraryneeds to be updated in accordance with the status of the box. If thereis no need to update the library, the process 550 goes back to 552waiting for another new box. If it is determined that the library needsto be updated, the process goes to 554.

At 554, the set of outdated titles in the library, and the set ofreleases missed in the past, or currently missing from the box, eitherdue to the box being off-line or due to storage errors, needs to bedetermined. To synchronize with the updated library in other boxes, theoutdated titles are flagged as not being accessible any more (even ifthe data may still be available in the box). The process 550 thenproceeds with the updating of the library at 556. As described above,the library is initially updated with the headers of the high bandtitles so that the box may accept orders of these titles and support theorders of other boxes for these titles. In operation, as soon as aheader is cached locally, the box is in condition to fulfill an orderfor a title associated with the header. For the high band titles, thebox is configured at 556 to fetch a header, or a header and acorresponding segment for each of these titles from other boxes. One ofthe exemplary mechanisms to fetch the headers or the segments is by theapplication-layer multicast-like gossip protocol as described above.

The system may be designed to require that each box store a header andonly one segment of the high band titles. Alternatively, the system maybe designed to require that each box store a header and more than onesegment of the high band titles. In any case, the box is ready to serveother boxes for fulfilling an order or updating a library. Further, itwill be appreciated that the responsibility for updating a new box withthe new titles may be diverted to newer boxes since they will only beable to assist with updating new titles.

While the titles in the top band are being updated, the process 550checks whether there is any release from the server. If there is arelease at 558, depending on where the release fits in the library, anappropriate title in the library may be affected. In one embodiment, thelibrary is virtually divided into a number of high, intermediate and lowbands. If a title in the release is supposed to be in the high band, arelatively less popular title in the high band is retired to a nextlower band, which essentially reduces the actual number of the titlesoriginally determined at 554. If there is no release or the release onlyincludes not the most demanded titles, the process 550 continues between556 and 562 until the titles in the high band are updated. In operation,the titles in each band are successively and progressively retired fromone band to a lower band in terms of popularity and/or age. Forconvenience, it is assumed that three bands, H, M and L bands are used.

Now the process 550 goes to 564 to fetch a header for all the titles inthe M and L bands and additionally a corresponding segment for a smallpercentage of the titles in the M band and L band. In one embodiment, 5%of the titles in the M band for now have a segment and 5% of the titlesin the L band also have a segment. As a result, updating the libraryavoids stopping the box from providing services. In any case, every timea title is retired from the H band to the M band, the correspondingsegment thereof is simply moved to the M band. Any other segment may bediscarded per the system design. And, when a title is moved to the Lband, the segment for the title may be retained in the L band ordiscarded depending on whether this title falls into the percentage ofthe titles that are designated for this box. In the case of controllinga fixed number of titles and preserving the local storage, acorresponding title in the L band, typically the most unpopular, isdiscarded or overwritten. It may be appreciated that the discarding ofsegments can be done lazily when the box begins to run out of storagespace, and can be avoided if there is more storage space available.

At 566, the process 550 continues to fetch segments for titles in the Hband and/or M band without affecting the box from servicing the users orother boxes. It is described that there is a case in which there are twosegments for a title in the H band. It is recalled that at 556, only oneof the segments has been fetched so as to minimize the time to have thebox ready for servicing users or other boxes. Accordingly, anothersegment may be fetched now at 566. Likewise, every title in the M bandis supposed to have at least one segment but only 5% of the titlestherein have a segment thus far. Accordingly, the respectivecorresponding segments may be fetched from other boxes withoutpreventing the box from servicing the user or other boxes.

Not directly shown in FIG. 5C, operations similar to 559 are inherentlyincluded in 564 and 566, respectively. Further, some of the process 550can be carried out any time in a day, preferably when the traffic in thenetwork is low. When choosing other boxes to supply the needed data toupdate the library, these boxes may be decided or switched from time totime to take advantage of the conditions in the network, geographiclocality, sustained bandwidth realized between the supplier and thereceiver, etc. as well as the conditions of the boxes themselves.

It may also be understood that the availability of a high-bandwidthbroadcast or multicast channel, such as those available via Cable orSatellite networks or through IP multicast, can be exploited to speed upthe process of updating a box, just as described earlier in the contextof seeding new movies. Broadcast channels may be devoted to transmissionof the latest releases, perhaps giving precedence to those titles inhighest demand. New boxes may then tune to the appropriate channel(s) toquickly receive headers and segments for the titles they are missing.

Referring now to FIG. 6A, there shows one exemplary implementation of aserver 600. The server 600 may correspond with the server 102 of FIG.1A, and may be a single computing device or a cluster of computers. Thesever 600 includes a server module 602 and an interface 604. In general,the server module 602 is loaded in a memory and executed by one or moreprocessors (not shown) to perform its operations. In application, theserver 600 may be operated by a service provider or an enterprise toprovide media services to users.

The server 600 also includes a delivery agent 606 that facilitatescommunications between a content or source provider 608 and the server600. Depending on implementation, the source provider 608 may include,but may not be limited to, a content receiver, a content producer, and amovie publisher. The delivery agent 606 is provided to ensure contentsare received properly from the source provider 608. Depending on how thecontent is received, the delivery agent 606 may be implemented invarious forms. For example, a movie publisher releases movies to aservice provider operating the server 600. The movies may be transportedsecurely to the server 600, in which case the delivery agent 606 is asecure transmission medium. In another example, the content may betransported by satellite, in which case, the delivery agent 606 may be asatellite receiver. In still another example in which a corporationdesires to advertise its products or services via the server 600 to aplurality of users, the corporation may deliver a commercial video tothe server 600 via the internet. Accordingly, the delivery agent 606 ispart of the Internet or a local network and provides a necessaryinterface (e.g., TCP/IP) to facilitate data communication between theserver 600 and the Internet. Other examples are also possible.

For efficiency, the server 600 may include or be coupled to a transcoder609 that is provided to convert source files in various formats into anacceptable format which is understood by client boxes. Typically, avideo source provided by a content provider could be high-definitionvideo signals, DVDs, film, etc. If that format is not a desired formatfor the server 600, the transcoder 609 is activated to convert suchsource to the acceptable format (e.g., MPEG-2 or MPEG-4). As describedabove, the source provider 608 may provide many types of sources. Withthe transcoder 609 or an appropriate device with similar functions, theserver 600 can receive any type of sources and distribute them to usersfor fees or for information.

The server 600 includes another interface 604 that facilitates datacommunication between the server 600 and a plurality of boxes in serviceover a data network 611, wherein the server 600 may be located remotelywith respect to the boxes. The network 611 can be part of a largenetwork including the Internet, the public switch telephone network(PSTN), a private network, or a wireless network. The network 611 mayuse one or more different transmission media, such as telephone lines,cables, fibers or air (wireless). An exemplary communication protocolused for communications between the server 600 and the boxes is TCP/IP.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the server module 602 includes a plurality offunctional engines or modules that are configured to work cooperativelywith each other. Not every module listed in the server module 602 ofFIG. 6A must be employed in practice. Depending on actual implementationor needs, the modules may be selectively deployed.

User management module 610 is configured to manage subscribers or users.It facilitates addition, deletion or updating of accounts pertaining toall users subscribing to or desiring to receive media services from theservice provider. The user management module 610 also manages paymentsettlement for all the accounts. In one embodiment, each account isbilled for a fixed monthly fee that allows unlimited access to the mediaservice. In another embodiment, each account is updated or chargedwhenever an order for a title in a library provided by the serviceprovider is placed.

Content management module 612 manages all content that may be providedto the users. As described above, the content is organized in the formof headers and segments. These objects are distributed among the boxesin service. The content management module 612 is configured to managethe distribution of these objects. By accessing the content managementmodule 612, an operator may control directly how to distribute objectsrelated to titles in the library and get mapping information on what isavailable and how and where these objects are distributed. FIG. 6B showsan exemplary map 630 illustrating how a library of 5000 titles isdistributed across N boxes. Column 632 lists all boxes in service. Eachbox is assigned a unique identifier for identification. Information inthe column 632 may be viewed as the identifiers for the boxes inservice. For example, box 1 is assigned a unique identifier of “Box 1”or a sequence of alphanumeric characters.

Column 634 lists a corresponding IP address for each of the boxes listedin column 632. Column 636 lists the headers for all titles in thelibrary. Column 638 lists what segments for title1 are residing in eachof the boxes, assuming title1 is required to have two segments cached ineach box. Column 640 lists what segment for title2 is residing in eachof the boxes, assuming title2 is required to have one segment cached ineach of the boxes. Column 642 lists what segment for title5000 is in aselected set of boxes, assuming title5000 is required to have onesegment in these selected boxes. As a result, all objects (i.e., headersor segments) in a box may be uniquely addressed for uploading to anotherbox or playback of an ordered title locally.

Delivery management module 614 is configured to respond to an orderreceived from an ordering box. Working with the content managementmodule 612, the delivery management module 614 creates, in responding tothe order, a response that includes source information, authenticationinformation and security information. An example of the sourceinformation is graphically illustrated as a table 650 in FIG. 6C or atable 652 in FIG. 6D. The table 650 includes an IP address (e.g., IPA1)for each of the four boxes that are designated to supply the segmentsfor an ordered title. The authentication information authenticates theordering box for secured communications with other boxes. The securityinformation facilitates decryption of any data for playback of thetitle. The response may further include an IP address identifying theordering box and instructions as to what segments to retrieve from otherboxes. Upon receiving the response, the ordering box allows the headercorresponding to a title (assumed in the L band) being selected to beplayed, and at the same time or substantially soon after, the orderingbox initiates four respective requests in accordance with the responsereceived from the server. It is understood that each of the requestsincludes an IP address of one of the four boxes. When each of the fourboxes receives one of the requests, the requested segment is released oruploaded to the ordering box.

Network management module 616 is provided to monitor the status of eachof the boxes in service. In one application, the network managementmodule 616 is configured to receive an address of a box. In many cases,a box is assigned a dynamic address by an Internet service provider thatmay be changed from time to time. To ensure each and every box inservice is in contact with the server 600, whenever the IP address of abox is changed for whatever reason, the new IP address thereof must benotified to the server in time. In one embodiment, each of the boxes isconfigured to send or receive a short message event triggered orperiodically to or from the server such that the network managementmodule 616 updates, if necessary, the IP address for the box that haschanged its IP address. On the other end, the network management module616 is configured to send a short message to each of the boxes for ashort response. If a box is out of operation (e.g., powered off ormalfunctioning), the network management module 616 is thus notifiedimmediately and updates the delivery management module 614 that mayexclude the box out of designation for providing segments for anordering box. Similarly, if a box is already supplying a segment for amovie order, the network management module may keep the deliverymanagement module informed of the box's availability status forsupplying a segment for another order.

Seeding management module 618 may also be referred to as a librarymanagement module. The seeding management module 618 is responsible forupdating the library in each box. Whenever there is a release, theseeding management module 618 ensures proper seeding of the release intothe boxes. In a situation in which the release is a newly released movieand likely in high demand, the seeding management module 618 causes aheader and at least one of the segments of the file pertaining to therelease to reside in each of the boxes. In another situation in whichthe release is not a newly released movie but may be popular in demand,the seeding management module 618 causes a header and possibly one ofthe segments of the file pertaining to the release to reside in each ofthe boxes. In still another situation in which the release is a classictitle and is relatively less popular in demand, the seeding managementmodule 618 causes a header to reside in each of the boxes and thesegments to reside in a selected group of the boxes in the network. Inyet another situation in which there is a new box just coupled to thenetwork, the network monitoring management 616 is configured to notifythe seeding management module 618 of the status of the box. Depending onthe status of the existing library in the box, the seeding managementmodule 618 determines what is missing in the library and providesinstructions to the box how to update the library from other boxes.

Security management module 620 is provided to secure the objectsdistributed across the boxes in service. In one embodiment, the securitymanagement module 620 is configured to authenticate a user associatedwith an ordering box and provide one or more security keys andauthentication information to the ordering box after the user isauthenticated and/or a payment for the order is settled. The securitykeys, once in an ordering box, may facilitate the decryption of theheader and/or segments. The authentication information allows theordering box to communicate with the designated boxes to fetch neededsegments for the playback of the title. In another embodiment, thesecurity management module 620 works in conjunction with the contentmanagement module 612 or the seeding management module 618 to encryptall objects (headers and/or segments) before they are distributed acrossthe boxes in service. In still another embodiment, the securitymanagement module 620 provides digital rights management (DRM) of allcontents that are distributed as objects across all boxes in service. Instill another embodiment, the security management module 620 may removesmall portions from a title's file before it is broken into segments anddistributed across boxes. When a box orders a title, these portions ofthe file are supplied directly by the server, perhaps as part of theserver response, improving security by ensuring that the title cannot befully constructed without the active participation of the server.

Commercial information management module 622 is provided to managecommercial information intended to display to users wheneverappropriate. Examples of such information may include, but not belimited to, advertisements, special offers, movie trailers and publicbroadcasts. Such information may be superimposed onto a small part of adisplay showing a movie, displayed during intervals between two movies,or beginning of showing a movie, or simply requested by a user.Depending on implementation, such information may be appended to aheader pertaining to a release or distributed independently according toone or more factors that include geographical locations of the boxes,viewing behaviors or preferred languages of the users.

Source provider management module 624 is provided to manage distributionof any fees paid by users for using any distributed contents originatedby providers. Depending on implementation, the source providermanagement module 624 may be configured to share payments withrespective content providers on daily, weekly or monthly basis via thedelivery agent 606 or provide financial outlook or statistics of titlesin the library being offered.

In further reference to the delivery management module 614 in FIG. 6A,according to one embodiment, the delivery management module 614 isconfigured to prevent a situation in which one or more of designatedboxes become suddenly unavailable or slow down to continue the supply ofthe required segments to an ordering box. The source information in aresponse to the ordering box includes backup information for each of thedesignated boxes. FIG. 6D shows exemplary source information with backupboxes in a table 652 that includes a backup identifier (shown as an IPaddress) for each of the designated boxes. Should one of the boxes failto respond to the request for a segment from the ordering box or thesegment cannot be received correctly, the backup IP address isimmediately called upon to switch to the corresponding backup box thatis available to provide or continue to provide a segment that theoriginally designated box fails to provide.

For completeness, FIG. 6E shows one embodiment in which an ordering box654 is being supported by three designated boxes 655-657 to receivethree respective segments pertaining to a title being ordered in the box654. Each of the boxes 655-657 is provided with a backup box that has acorresponding identical segment. Specifically, the box 655 is supportedby a backup box 658, the box 656 is supported by a backup box 659, andthe box 657 is supported by a backup box 660. While a header for theordered title is played in the ordering box, the three distributedobjects are being fetched from the boxes 655-657. If, for some reason,the box 656 refuses to continue providing the segment, the backup box659 is activated to replace the box 656 to continue providing thesegment. In one embodiment, the backup box 659 is configured to join thebox 656 to conjointly supply the segment to the box 654 (e.g., eachsupplying a different portion of the same segment).

FIG. 6F shows another embodiment in which an ordering box 670 is beingsupported by three designated boxes 671-673 to receive three respectivesegments pertaining to a title being ordered in the box 670. Inoperation, the breakdown of an ordering box, for whatever reason it maybe, is rare, and the breakdown of several boxes at exactly the same timeis even rarer. Therefore the three backup boxes 674-676 for the threedesignated boxes 671-673 may also be designed as the backup boxes toother designated boxes supplying segments. FIG. 6F shows an ordering box677 being supplied by two designated boxes 679 and 680 while an orderingbox 678 is being supplied by three designated boxes 682-684. To ensurethe respective fetching processes are carried out successfully, each ofthe designated boxes is supported by a backup box, in which case, thetwo designated boxes 679 and 680 are being backed up by the boxes 674and 675 and the three designated boxes 682-684 are being backed up bythe boxes 674-676. In the event one of the backup boxes 674-676 becomingan active box, the server 600 may immediately designate another box inthe field to be the backup box.

Referring now to FIG. 6G, there shows a flowchart or process 686 ofstarting an instant playback of a selection (i.e., a title) in alibrary. The process 686 may be implemented in software, hardware or acombination of both as a method, a process, and/or a system. Preferably,the process 686 is executed in a computing device designated as a serverfacilitating the instant playback of a selected title from a boxassociated with a user. In one embodiment, the process 686 is employedin a media on demand system. At 688, the process 686 is awaiting arequest from an ordering box associated with a user. Typically, a userselects a title and then places an order. As will be further describedbelow, the ordering box generates a request to be transported to theserver. The process 686 is activated when such request including theorder is received from the ordering box. In general, the requestincludes an identifier and an IP address of the ordering box, the useraccount information (e.g., user name), and the order information. Beforeanything happens in the ordering box, the process 686 proceeds withauthentication of the user. If the user is not registered, the process686 goes to 691 wherein a response including an error message isgenerated and returned to the ordering box. Depending on implementation,the error message may activate a local module in the ordering box todisplay an error message or ask the user to register with the system.

After the user is authenticated, the process 686 goes to 692 todetermine if payment for the order is settled. In one embodiment, in aregistration process, a user may provide credit card information forcharges on any order the user places with the system. In anotherembodiment, the user may receive a monthly statement for collectivesettlement of charges. If payment is not settled (e.g., the user has alarge outstanding balance in his/her account), the process 686 goes to693 where a response including an error message is generated andreturned to the ordering box. The error message may be displayed locallyto the user for payment.

After payment is settled, the process 686 goes to 694 to determine anumber of boxes that are designated to supply the segments to theordering box. The exact number of boxes depends on the number ofsegments the ordering box needs to continue the playback of the selectedtitle. At 696, a response is generated in accordance with the receivedrequest. In general, the response includes source information,authentication information and security information. The sourceinformation instructs where and how the ordering box can get the neededsegment(s) to continue the playback of the selected title. Theauthentication information allows the ordering box to conduct respectivesecured communications with boxes designated to supply the neededsegment(s). The security information facilitates decryption of any datafor the playback of the ordered title. In determining one or more boxesto supply the needed segments among others, one or more several factorsmay be considered depending on implementation. These factors include,but may not be limited to, respective available bandwidths, geographiclocations, histories of availability of these supplying boxes, and theInternet service provider of each box. In addition, whether the orderedtitle is popular or not, a supplying box is new or not, and a supplyingbox is busy or not may be considered as well. In any case, the responseis transported back to the ordering box or causes the ordering box tostart the playback while receiving the needed segments. The process 686then returns to 688 to await another request.

The process 686 shows that, in one embodiment, the server handles onlythe ordering process and thus can easily manage a large number ofrequests for different titles at substantially the same time. One of thepossible features, advantages and benefits of some embodiments of thepresent invention is to shift the data-feeding burden to the users touse the collective unused bandwidth and computing power.

Referring now to FIG. 7A, there shows one exemplary implementation of abox 700 that may correspond to any one of the boxes (e.g., 207-1, 207-2and 207-n) of FIG. 2A. The box 700 includes a local module 702, aninterface 704, and a storage space 706. The local module 702 is loadedin a memory 708 and executed by a processor 710 to perform itsoperations. In operation, the box 700 may be provided to a subscriber oruser by a service provider or an enterprise offering media services tousers. Through the network 712, the box 700 can receive the mediaservices provided by a server (e.g., the server 600 of FIG. 6A). Asstated above, examples of the box 700 may include, but not be limitedto, a desktop computer, a laptop or notebook computer, a set-top box, aportable device such as a telephone, tablet PC or PDA, etc. The network712 is preferably a broadband local loop that uses one or more of xDSL,ATM, SONET, fiber optic lines, a private/public telephone network, awireless connection, or CAT-5. The box 700 is coupled to the network 712by way of a circuit-switched or packet-switched connection.

As shown in FIG. 7A, there are a plurality of modules that areconfigured to work cooperatively with each other. It is understood tothose skilled in the art that not every module listed in the localmodule 702 of FIG. 7A must be employed. Depending on actualimplementation or needs, the modules may be selectively deployed.

Status reporting module 714 is provided to monitor various statusesaffecting the box 700. In one situation, whenever the IP address of thebox 700 is changed, the status reporting module 714 reports the new IPaddress immediately to the server. In another situation, the statusreporting module 714 is configured to detect how long the box has beenout of the network so that a library in the box can be appropriatelyupdated in a timely fashion. In still another situation, the statusreporting module 714 detects the available uploading bandwidth. If theuploading bandwidth is below a certain number, the status reportingmodule 714 will inform the server in a timely manner so that the box isnot to be designated to supply a segment to other boxes. In yet anothersituation, the status reporting module 714 detects if a segment beingfetched from a supplying box is no longer at a desired speed, the statusreporting module 714 may cause a communication session to be terminatedwith the supplying box, and activate a communication session withanother supplying box. Other functions performed by the status reportingmodule 714 may be appreciated in the detailed description herein.

Library management module 716 is provided to manage headers and segmentsfor the many titles in the storage space 706. Through the librarymanagement module 716, the server knows what objects the box has. Thelibrary management module 716 also dictates what distributed objects(i.e., missing segments) are to be fetched in reference to an orderedtitle. As the box fetches or receives headers and segments of new andchanging titles, the library management module 716 manages them. It willbe appreciated that the library management module 716 may communicatewith the server to keep the server up to date on available segments tosupply to ordering boxes. Such communications may occur after each event(such as receiving a new segment), at predetermined intervals, and/orthe like.

Metadata module 718 is provided to facilitate various interactionsbetween the box 700 and a user thereof. The metadata module 718 may beimplemented to provide various graphic interfaces to allow the user tobrowse metadata about the library in the box 700. The metadata mayinclude, but not be limited to, associated information about actors,directors, reviews, blurbs, ratings, etc. about the titles in thelibrary. In one embodiment, the metadata module 718 accepts entries fromthe users and display desired information in accordance with theentries. In an exemplary application, a user enters one or morecharacters. The metadata module 718 goes through the metadata andprovides a list of titles in accordance with the entered characters. Asmore characters are entered, the list is progressively narrowed so thata selection of a title may be made easier. In another exemplaryapplication, the metadata module 718 allows a user to specify a type ofa title (e.g., action or romance), a list of titles pertaining to thetype is displayed so that a selection of a title may be made.

The security module 720 is provided to facilitate secured communicationswith the server as well as other boxes. In one embodiment, as soon asone of the designated boxes accepts a request from the ordering box tosupply a segment, a secured session between the ordering box and thesupplying box is established. Consequently, all data transmittedtherebetween is secured. The security module 720 is also provided tohandle DRM and security of any data for the playback of the orderedtitle.

Learning engine 722 is provided to best serve users from the viewingbehavior of a user and/or network behavior of the box associated withthe user. From what a user has browsed, selected or ordered, a list ofrecommended titles may be automatically generated for the user. Alsofrom the viewing behavior, the learning engine 722 can configure the boxto decide which segment(s) to cache locally. In a situation in which abox is offline for a period of time, when the box is back online, thelearning engine 722 can configure the box to update the library byprioritizing the titles to be fetched. By acquiring the network behaviorof the box, the learning engine 722 knows what bandwidth may beavailable at different times in a day, which may facilitate thedesignation of the box to supply segments to other boxes or seeding ofthe box with releases from the server.

Registration module 724 allows new users to register with the system.Typically, after a user is successfully registered, the registrationmodule 724 is configured to forward the registration information to theserver for centralized management. In operation, the registration module724 acts as a frontline to guard the system, requiring, for example, ausername and password. A user must be authenticated by the registrationmodule 724 before an order can be accepted.

Referring now to FIG. 7B and FIG. 7C, both figures collectively show aflowchart or process 730 of starting instant playback of a selection(i.e., a title). The process 730 may be implemented in software,hardware or a combination of both as a method, a process, and/or asystem. Preferably, the process 730 is executed in a computing devicethat may correspond to a box as used herein. Working in conjunction withthe process 686 of FIG. 6G, the process 730 enables instant playback ofa file pertaining to a selected title from a box, wherein the file isnot completely available at the time of the playback.

At 732, the process 730 awaits a selection from a user. In one case, auser views a display with a plurality of titles from which the user mayactivate a key (e.g., on a remote control or keyboard) to choose one ofthe titles. The process 730 is activated when a selection is made by theuser. The process 730 goes to 734 to determine whether the user and/orbox is properly authenticated. In one embodiment, a registered user isrequired to input a username and a password for authentication. Inanother embodiment, a registered user is required to enter a code forauthentication. There may be other ways to authenticate a user. In anycase, the process 730 needs to ensure that a user and a box islegitimate. If not, the user is sent an error message at 736 that mayrecommend that the user register with the system.

After a registered user has been authenticated at 734, the box sends arequest at 738 in accordance with the selection. The request includesinformation about the order and the user. The request is transported tothe server by a service provider. Upon receiving the request, the serverproceeds with process 686 of FIG. 6G. Meanwhile, the box awaits aresponse from the server at 740. The request may be re-sent if aresponse is not received within a predefined time (e.g., 5 seconds).However, if the response is not received beyond a certain time (e.g.,the network is down), an error message will be displayed at 739.

At 742, the response is received from the server. For proper reason, theresponse may restrict the user from using the system. If the user isrestricted, the process 730 goes to 743 display an error message to theuser. Upon authorization, the process 730 goes to 744 where a header ofthe file pertaining to the selected title is played and may be displayedvia a display utility.

At 746, in accordance with the response from the server, the box makesrespective requests to other boxes for missing segments. As describedabove, the response includes source information indicating where the boxcan fetch the missing segments. For example, if there are four segmentsfor a file and the box stores two of the segments locally, then twosegments must be fetched from other boxes. At 748, the box awaits aresponse from the boxes being requested to supply the missing segments.If one of the boxes is unable to respond to the request, a backup boxmay be called upon to supply the segment. If the backup box is alsounable to respond to the request, the box will send a request to theserver for additional backup boxes. In any case, after the designatedboxes respond to the requests from the ordering box, the ordering box at750 starts to fetch the missing segments from the designated andresponded boxes.

As described above, the missing segments are expected to arrive at apredetermined speed. If, for some reason, a portion of the network iscongested or the box itself is malfunctioning, causing a significantslowdown of the segment being fetched, the process 730 goes to 754 wherea backup box is called in to continue supplying the segment beinginterrupted. The details of 752 and 754 are further described in FIG.7E.

If all segments are streaming at predetermined minimum speeds, then, at756, portions of the segments locally stored and the portions of thesegments being streamed in are multiplexed into a buffer as shown inFIG. 7D. A buffer 770, preferably part of the memory 708 of FIG. 7A, isloaded with data of the header 772. As shown in FIG. 7D, a portion 774of the header 772 has been played out of the buffer 770. The remainingportion 776 of the header 772 is yet to be played. At the same time, thestreaming of segments 778 and 780 is being fed into the buffer 770.Segments 778-781 (including the segments locally stored and the segmentsbeing streamed in) are multiplexed into the buffer 770. Morespecifically, a block of data from segment 1, a block of data fromsegment 2, a block of data from segment 3 and a block of data fromsegment 4 are multiplexed and successively fed into the buffer 770. As aresult, the original order of the data is restored and the remainingportion of the file pertaining to the title is assembled.

Referring back to FIG. 7C, the process 730 goes to 758 to continueplayback of the assembled data in the buffer until the entire file forthe ordered title is played. The process 730 then goes back to 732 toawait another order from the user.

Referring back to FIG. 7D, there show two pointers 782 and 784. Each ofthe pointers 782 and 784 is used to remember where the data block of asegment is being fed or about to be fed to the buffer 770. In the event,the segment being fetched from a box is interrupted and a backup box isstepped in, the ordering box knows exactly where to start fetching thesegment from where it was interrupted in accordance with the pointer.Likewise, similar pointers (not shown) may be provided to remember wherethe data block of the locally cached segment is being fed or about to befed to the buffer 770. In the event, the ordering box needs to be resetor is suddenly powered off and back on, these pointers can facilitatethe continuation of the playback of the ordered title.

It has been described that a box may execute a number of tasks such asfacilitating a search of a desired title among all titles in a library,fulfilling an order from a user, supplying one or more segments to otherboxes, updating the library in responding to a release, and reportingits status or network status to a server. Although all tasks are equallyimportant, some may be prioritized ahead of others.

Referring now to FIG. 7E, there shows a flowchart or process 784 ofprioritizing tasks in a box according to one embodiment. It should benoted that the process 784 may make the system more efficient. Uponinstall, a box is not requested to supply or upload a segment to anotherbox. The box is configured to report at 786 its status to a server(e.g., 202 of FIG. 2A) periodically or at a predefined time, synchronizewith a counterpart box for updating a release to its library or performother operations that may affect the overall performance of the box.When reporting to the server, the box sends out a status that mayindicate its working condition. In one embodiment, the box is coupled toa public network and assigned a dynamic IP address. To ensure that thebox is in communication with the server and other boxes, the box isconfigured to report any IP address change to the server.

The box either enters a waiting mode or performs other operations at786. As the box may be a candidate to supply one or more segments to anordering box, at 788, the process 784 checks whether the box has beenrequested to supply any segment to another box. If there is no suchrequest received, the box returns to 786 to keeping on doing whatever itwas doing. However, upon receiving a request from an ordering box at788, the process 784 goes to 790 to locate a requested segment amongmany segments residing in the box. At 792, the box checks whether theuploading bandwidth is sufficient. It is assumed that the uploadingbandwidth available at the time of the request is W and the bandwidthrequired to upload the segment is R. If W>R, the process 784 goes to796, which means any operations, if there are any, that are using theuploading bandwidth are not concerned. If W<R, the process 784 goes to794 where any other operations, if there are any, that are using theuploading bandwidth are stopped immediately. Example operations that maytake uploading bandwidth includes uploading a release package requestedby a counterpart box or seeding a new box.

After such operations are suspended, the process 784 goes to 796 toupload the requested segment to the ordering box. At 798, it isdetermined whether the uploading of the requested segment is finished.If not, the uploading is continued. When the requested segment isfinished uploading, the process 784 goes to 786 to restore or continuewhat the box was doing or is supposed to be doing.

It should be noted that the process 784 is described for uploading onesegment. Those skilled in the art will understand that the process 784is applicable to uploading more than one segment if the uploadingbandwidth permits. It is described above that more than one segment fora top band typically resides in a box. When the uploading bandwidth of abox to the ordering box is sufficient to upload more than one segment,in one embodiment, such box may be designated to upload more than onesegment so that the playback of a selected title depends less on otherboxes.

FIG. 8 shows an architecture 800 in which many aspects of the presentinvention are equally applied thereto. The architecture 800 may includeall the functionality of the architecture of FIG. 2A. As an enhancementto the architecture of FIG. 2A, the architecture 800 includes a serverdatabase storing all distributed objects. By storing the distributedobjects, the server may support ordering boxes when backup boxes fail,as an initial backup box, when bandwidth is available, etc.

It should be appreciated that the server, in response to a request for atitle by an ordering box, need not respond directly to the ordering box.The server 202 may respond by providing instructions to distributedboxes to provide distributed objects to the ordering box. The server 202may respond by requesting distributed boxes to volunteer their services.Many other possible responses by the server are also possible. It shouldbe further appreciated that requests by ordering boxes need not go tothe server. For example, boxes may be given network configuration maps,so that the boxes can make requests directly to other boxes, therebyavoiding using server bandwidth for playback requests.

One skilled in the art will recognize that elements of the system may beimplemented in software, but can be implemented in hardware or acombination of hardware and software. The invention can also be embodiedas computer-readable code on a computer-readable medium. Thecomputer-readable medium can be any data-storage device that can storedata which can be thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples ofthe computer-readable medium may include, but not be limited to,read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tape,hard disks, or optical data-storage devices. The computer-readable mediacan also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems so thatthe computer-readable code is stored and executed in a distributedfashion.

Possible advantages of the invention are numerous. Different embodimentsor implementations may yield one or more of the following benefits,features, and advantages. One of them is the instantaneous feature in amedia-on-demand system. With a small portion of a file pertaining to atitle locally cached, the remaining portion of the file is distributedin segments across one or more boxes. After a title is ordered, providedthat a user is authenticated and a payment is properly settled, thelocally cached portion is immediately played; during the playback ofthis locally cached portion, the remaining portion is fetched from theboxes as streams to continue the playback of the title. Another one ofthem is the way a file is fragmented. Given a file pertaining to atitle, the file is fragmented into a header and several segments. Theheader is a continuous portion of the file while each of the segments isa decimated portion for the remaining portion for the file. As thesegments are being fetched, the segments are multiplexed to restore theorder of the original data for playback. Still another possible benefit,feature, and advantage is the underlying mechanism of updating a libraryin a box synchronously or asynchronously without preventing the box fromservicing others. When a release becomes available, a release package tobe locally cached is propagated asynchronously to the box from otherboxes, instead of being transmitted from a central server. Otherbenefits, features, and advantages are also possible.

The foregoing description of embodiments is illustrative of variousaspects/embodiments of the present invention. Various modifications tothe present invention can be made to the preferred embodiments by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope ofthe invention as defined by the appended claims. For example, in oneembodiment, the size of a header for a file may be reduced to zero, inother words, a file is fragmented into a plurality of segments that canbe distributed into boxes. Also, when an order of a title is placed, theserver may identify the sources that will supply data for the order, andthen contact these suppliers itself to initiate data transfers, insteadof requiring the ordering box to initiate communication with thesources. In fact, an ordering box could even dynamically obtain thesource information from boxes that cache respective segments for thetitle instead of requiring the server to identify the supplying boxes.Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by theappended claims rather than the foregoing description of embodiments.

1. A method of providing media-on-demand services over a network, themethod being implemented using one or more processors that perform stepscomprising: on one or more servers that provide the services,communicating with a plurality of devices in order to receive a playbackrequest for a desired media content in a library of media content from afirst device; responsive to receiving the playback request for thedesired media content, selecting two or more second devices from aplurality of devices that communicate with the one or more servers, inorder to transmit two or more distributed objects that can be playedback to produce the media content on the first device, wherein each ofthe two or more distributed objects includes decimated data blocks fromdata pertaining to the media content so that each of the two or moredistributed objects includes a different set of data blocks, each set ofdata blocks comprising every n-th data block of the decimated datablocks with n being an integer; and enabling the first device to achieveinstantaneous and continuous playback of the desired media content by(i) seeding the first device with a header segment for each mediacontent of the library, including the desired media content, (ii)initiating instant playback of the desired media content using theheader segment of the desired media content, (iii) causing the two ormore second devices, that are each independently capable of making theplayback request for any media content in the library, to transmit thetwo or more distributed objects of the desired media contentconcurrently to the first device, and (iv) multiplexing the headersegment with the two or more distributed objects that are transmitted tothe first device from the two or more second devices, concurrently, inorder to restore an original order in which the distributed objects areto be played back.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:verifying, on the one or more servers, whether the playback request isauthorized upon receiving the playback request; and determining, on theone or more servers, in accordance with a scheme, the two or more seconddevices designated to supply the distributed objects to the first deviceupon verifying that the playback request is authorized.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the scheme is based on at least one of: (i) a timezone, or (ii) a working status of the two or more second devices.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising identifying a set of backupdevices designated to provide another set of distributed objectspertaining to the desired media content, wherein the other set ofdistributed objects is substantially equivalent to the distributedobjects provided by the two or more second devices.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising providing authentication information to thefirst device to facilitate secured communications between the firstdevice and the two or more second devices.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the authentication information includes security information fordeciphering at least one of the distributed objects.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the two or more distributed objects are receivedconcurrently by the first device from each of the two or more seconddevices.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein a length of playback usingthe residing object is determined for purposes of ensuring continuousplayback of the entire media content.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinnone of the distributed objects are provided by the one or more serversduring playback of the media content.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinthe library includes a plurality of different media content availablefor selection and immediate playback by a user, and wherein neither thefirst device nor the two or more second devices stores a complete dataitem pertaining to each of the different media content.
 11. A method forproviding media-on-demand services on a first device coupled to anetwork, the method comprising: enabling selection of a media contentfrom a library of media content; generating a request when the mediacontent is selected, the request including title information;transmitting the request over the network to a server configured togenerate a response; receiving the response from the server, theresponse including source information identifying two or more devicesdesignated to provide two or more distributed objects pertaining to theselected media content to enable continuous playback of the selectedmedia content on the first device, wherein each of the two or moredesignated devices is configurable to generate a request for playback ofthe media content, and wherein each of the two or more distributedobjects includes decimated data blocks from data pertaining to the mediacontent so that each of the two or more distributed objects includes adifferent set of data blocks, each set of data blocks comprising everyn-th data block of the decimated data blocks with n being an integer;initiating playback of the selected media content using a residingobject stored on the first device while using the source information toretrieve the two or more distributed objects from the two or moredesignated devices, concurrently, as two or more streams of data; andcontinuing the playback of the media content using the two or morestreams of data once the playback of the media content using theresiding object is completed, including multiplexing the two or morestreams of data with the data of the residing object when the residingobject is played back in order to restore an original order in which thetwo or more streams of data are to be played back.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising making a determination on the server as towhether a user is authenticated to initiate playback of the selectedmedia content prior to generating the request.
 13. The method of claim12, further comprising deciphering at least one of the residing objector the distributed objects based, at least in part, on the response. 14.The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting a second set ofrequests to the two or more designated devices in accordance with thesource information provided by the server.
 15. The method of claim 11,wherein using the source information to retrieve the two or moredistributed objects comprises: determining a download rate for each ofthe streams of data; and switching to a backup device upon determiningthat a respective download rate for at least one of the streams of datais below a predetermined threshold.
 16. The method of claim 11, whereinnone of the two or more distributed objects are provided by the serverfor playback.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the library includes aplurality of different media content available for selection and instantplayback, and wherein, for each of the different media content, thefirst device is configured to store less than a complete data filepertaining thereto.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:receiving an instruction to update the library with new media content;receiving, in accordance with the instruction, a set of data blockspertaining to the new media content; and recovering from the set of datablocks pertaining to the new media content a release package includingat least a header segment for each new media content identified by theinstruction.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising enabling aselection of the new media content from the library.
 20. The method ofclaim 18, wherein receiving the set of data blocks pertaining to the newmedia content comprises receiving the set of data blocks pertaining tothe new media content from the two or more designated devices.
 21. Asystem for providing media-on-demand services over a network, the systemcomprising: a plurality of devices coupled to the network, each of theplurality of devices including a storage element provided for storing aheader segment and one or more distributed segments for each of aplurality of media content; a server coupled to the network andconfigured to provide source information to a first device of theplurality of devices, in response to a request from the first device forplayback of a selected one of the plurality of media content, the sourceinformation identifying two or more of the plurality of devices beingdesignated to provide respective distributed segments pertaining to theselected media content to the first device to enable continuous playbackof the selected media content on the first device, wherein each of theplurality of devices is configurable to submit a request for playback ofthe selected media content; and wherein, upon receiving the sourceinformation, the first device is configured to (i) initiate a playbackof the media content using a stored header segment, (ii) concurrentlyretrieve respective distributed segments from the two or more designateddevices using the received source information, and (iii) multiplex theretrieved distributed segments with the stored header segment in orderto restore an original order in which the distributed objects arecontinuously played back; wherein each of the retrieved distributedsegments includes decimated data blocks from data pertaining to theselected media content so that each of the retrieved distributedsegments includes a different set of data blocks, each set of datablocks comprising every n-th data block of the decimated data blockswith n being an integer.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the serverdoes not provide any of the distributed segments to the first device.23. The system of claim 21, wherein, in response to the request from thefirst device, the server provides the first device with one or moreidentifiers for identifying a set of backup devices designated toprovide another set of distributed segments pertaining to the selectedmedia content, wherein the other set of distributed segments issubstantially equivalent to the distributed segments provided by the twoor more designated devices.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein theserver further provides authentication information to the first deviceto facilitate secured communications between the first device and thetwo or more designated devices.
 25. The system of claim 24, wherein thesource information further includes security information for decipheringat least one of the header segment or the distributed segmentspertaining to the selected media content.
 26. The system of claim 21,wherein each of the two or more designated devices identified by thesource information is determined based on at least one of: (i) ageographic location, (ii) a time zone, or (iii) a working status of therespective device.
 27. The system of claim 21, wherein the server isconfigured to designate a set of seeding devices to receive a sequenceof data blocks pertaining to a second media content, the set of seedingdevices being configured to update the library in the first device andthe two or more second devices by transmitting copies of at least aportion of the received sequence of data blocks to at least one of thefirst device or the two or more designated devices.
 28. The system ofclaim 27, wherein the set of seeding devices is further configured totransmit at least a portion of the sequence of data blocks to at leastone of the first device or the two or more second devices whileconcurrently receiving the sequence of data blocks pertaining to thesecond media content.
 29. A manufacture comprising non-transitorycomputer readable media storing information therein that is executablein a computing device for providing media-on-demand services over anetwork, the manufacture comprising: program code for receiving arequest from a first device coupled to the network, the requestincluding an order for playback of a media content in a library; programcode for identifying two or more second devices coupled to the network,the two or more second devices being designated to provide distributedobjects pertaining to the media content, wherein each of the distributedobjects includes decimated data blocks from data pertaining to the mediacontent so that each of the distributed objects includes a different setof data blocks, each set of data blocks comprising every n-th data blockof the decimated data blocks with n being an integer; and program codefor providing identification information corresponding to the two ormore second devices to the first device to enable continuous playback ofthe media content on the first device, wherein the first deviceinitiates instantaneous playback of the media content using a residingobject pertaining to the media content while using the identificationinformation to receive the distributed objects from the two or moresecond devices, concurrently, data from the received distributed objectsbeing multiplexed in order to restore an original order in which thereceived distributed objects are to be played back, and wherein each ofthe two or more second devices is configurable to submit a request forplayback of the media content.
 30. The software product of claim 29,further comprising: program code for making a determination as towhether the order is authorized upon receiving the request; and programcode for determining, in accordance with a scheme, the two or moresecond devices designated to supply the distributed objects to the firstdevice upon determining that the order is authorized.
 31. The softwareproduct of claim 30, further comprising program code for identifying aset of backup devices designated to provide another set of distributedobjects pertaining to the media content, wherein the other set ofdistributed objects is substantially equivalent to the distributedobjects provided by the two or more second devices.
 32. A manufacturecomprising non-transitory computer readable media having informationembedded therein that is executable in a computing device for providingmedia-on-demand services on a first device coupled to a network, themanufacture comprising: program code for enabling selection of a mediacontent in a library of media content; program code for generating arequest when the media content is selected, the request including titleinformation; program code for transmitting the request over the networkto a server configured to generate a response; program code forreceiving the response from the server, the response including sourceinformation identifying two or more devices designated to provide two ormore distributed objects pertaining to the selected media content toenable continuous playback of the selected media content on the firstdevice, wherein each of the two or more designated devices isconfigurable to generate a request for playback of the media content,and wherein each of the two or more distributed objects includesdecimated data blocks from data pertaining to the selected media contentso that each of the two or more distributed objects includes a differentset of data blocks, each set of data blocks comprising every n-th datablock of the decimated data blocks with n being an integer; program codefor initiating playback of the selected media content using a residingobject stored on the first device, while using the source information toretrieve the two or more distributed objects from the two or moredesignated devices, concurrently, as two or more streams of data, and tomultiplex the two or more streams of data with the residing object inorder to restore an original order in which the two or more streams ofdata are to be continuously played back; and program code for continuingthe playback of the media content using the two or more streams of dataonce the playback of the media content using the residing object iscompleted.
 33. The software product of claim 32, further comprisingprogram code for making a determination as to whether a user isauthenticated to initiate playback of the selected media content priorto generating the request.
 34. The software product of claim 33, furthercomprising program code for deciphering at least one of the residingobject or the distributed objects based, at least in part, on theresponse.
 35. The software product of claim 32, further comprisingprogram code for transmitting a second set of requests to the two ormore designated devices in accordance with the source informationprovided by the server.
 36. The software product of claim 32, whereinthe library includes a plurality of different media content availablefor selection and instant playback, and wherein, for each of thedifferent media content, the device is configured to store less than acomplete data file pertaining thereto.